Code Name: Death
by VioletCrush
Summary: The term 'partner' has a rather wide range of meanings from associate to friend to significant other. I thought that was rather clear and couldn't possibly complicate all those different meanings in my relationship with Soul. Oh how wrong I was.
1. Bar Talk

_**Bar Talk**_

_**

* * *

**_

The pulse thrummed through the floor and into my fluttering chest, every beat coursing through the very fibers of my being. . . and destroying my ear drums. Why we chose this place, I have no idea, but we came here every Friday night. No, we never came here to dance with the other jiving bodies or to pick up a few dates, things you would normally do at a high class nightclub. We came to do business.

After flashing our IDs to the bouncer at the door, we waltzed in to the main arena of the club: the bar and dance floor. All the senses were a-buzz from the ear-pumping bass to the sight-blinding strobes. While my partner, Soul Evans, checked his cell phone for texts, I gazed through the smoky blackness, trying to catch a glimpse of exactly all who were here. It was impossible with the constant movement of colored lights and twisting forms. Instinctively, my hand reached down the fabric of my little black dress and brushed the discreet bulge on my thigh. I always packed, just in case. You never knew who was full of enough grudges and alcohol to try and pull something. At least I never came alone and my partner always kept a close eye on me.

Seeming to sense my slight anxiety, Soul tapped the back of my hand and jerked his head to his right, indicating me to follow. We weaved through the swaying mass towards the spiraling black stair case at the back corner leading up to the balcony dining area and private booths. I stifled a giggle at seeing my partner's snow-white hair change from green to red to blue in the roving lights.

We finally arrived at one of the private rooms, particularly our weekly reserved room: the Red Room. Soul slid back the black-paneled door and stepped aside to let me in first. The entire room was in various shades of red: Red couches lined the walls, a red-wood coffee table sat between them on luscious red carpet. The walls were maroon with dull red light fixtures. Usually these private rooms were here for . . . well . . . private matters. But we were here for rather different private matters: business, remember?

"Ah! Maka! Soul! You guys finally made it! Of course you would be late," Kid greeted. He sat sipping on a glass of red wine between his twin partners, Liz and Patty, who held margaritas.

"Lookin' sexy, Maka!" Liz held up her glass towards me and winked. Patty simply cheered and took another swig of her fruity drink. Honestly, I don't know why they let that girl have alcohol.

"The Great and Powerful Black*Star will not tolerate your lateness!" yelled the overly obnoxious Black*Star, sitting opposite Kid.

"Oh get over yourself, everyone! Sheesh! You're acting so not cool," Soul said, sliding the door shut behind him.

Black*Star pouted and moodily crossed his muscular arms over his beefy chest. Soul plopped down next to Black*Star and poked him in his star tattoo on his shoulder.

"C'mon, I was only joking! You're cool!" Soul grinned, revealing his dangerously sharp teeth. Black*Star grinned in reply and leaned back on the couch, putting both arms on the back rest of the sofa. His beautiful but deadly partner, Tsubaki, blushed slightly. Her long black pony tail swished away from Black*Star's hand as she smiled and waved at me.

"Hi, everyone!" I said, waving back at Tsubaki.

"Geeze, what a dork," Soul teased.

"Hey!" I jabbed at him.

He responded by grinning and patting the empty space on the couch next to him. I slid into the space near him as he casually slid an arm on the back of the couch behind me.

Kid turned to us, a serious expression on his face, like always. "Soul, Maka, nice job on the last mission."

"Hai," we said in unison while nodding our heads.

The door suddenly slid open and the blast of bass that, up till now had been a mere pounding, flew in. A scantily clad waitress entered.

"Drinks for the newcomers?" she asked in a sugary voice, eyeing the boys like candy.

"I'll have a Jack with Coke, and she'll have a kiddie cocktail," Soul ordered, eyeing the waitress's cleavage with his stark red orbs.

A vein throbbed in my head. "A _kiddie cocktail_?" I raged, thrusting a fist in Soul's face.

He simply grinned mischievously, saying, "Yeah, cuz you don't look old enough to drink, Flatty."

That's it! My fist smashed down on the top of his head. Then I turned to the waitress who had, like the rest of the people in the room, sweat-dropped.

"Gimme a Pena Colada," I demanded, crossing my arms over my chest, hiding the fact that my partner's reference to my chest size was all too accurate. I'm a late bloomer, okay?

The chick laughed nervously. "Sure, hon, but I need to see some ID first."

I twitched. Really? I grabbed Soul's limp body by his pinstriped suit jacket and dug in the inside breast pocket. He kept both of our IDs in his wallet for occasions such as this so I wouldn't have to worry about the trivialities of carrying a purse to a nightclub. Nice guy, right? Only on rare occasions.

I thrust the ID in her face just long enough for her to catch my picture and birth date. Then, without a word, she bolted.

Soul finally regained consciousness and the normalities of the evening proceeded. Black*Star made outrageous declarations about his greatness. Kid had an OCD breakdown about the asymmetry of the carpet. Patty cracked up about something that wasn't even funny. Liz made sarcastic remarks while trying to calm Kid down. Soul slumped back all "cool-like" next to me, drinking his Jack and Coke and tugging playfully on my hair every so often. Tsubaki apologized for absolutely no reason. And I smiled and kept the conversations moving, along with bantering with Soul here and there. Yup, this was our little group!

Now where is the business that I keep mentioning, you ask. Well, we weren't just a group of friends out having some drinks on a Friday night. We were your less-than-average specialty assassin team of technicians and weapons. The things that you worried about only in nightmares were our day jobs. Well, we mostly worked at night, but evil occasionally came out in broad daylight.

Let's just say we made a living off exterminating your nightmares, and we were good at it, too.

"Well there was something important I wanted to talk about," Kid said after a break in the conversations. Everyone shifted in various ways in order to face Kid better, giving him their undivided attention. "My father has told me that Shibusen intelligence agents have been picking up on some rumored witch activity. Nothing has been confirmed for sure yet, and no one knows motives. They're just rumors. However, we've also been picking up increased insanity waves."

Everyone stiffened. Insanity waves had almost ruined everything we had known and loved back when we were a last-resort team in high school. None of us went unscathed by the effects of those waves.

Kid continued, "Our team has not been called into action just yet, lesser teams of older Shibusen students are taking care of things for now."

I heard Black*Star snicker a little. Yeah, that was just a nice way of saying their fulfilling extra curricular lessons. We'd been in that boat only a few years ago.

"But, we need to be on our toes and on watch. There's no telling if this is just a ruse or a legitimate concern. Be prepared to be called on last minute, understood?"

"Hai," we all responded in unison with complete seriousness, a rarity for us.

This was interrupted by Soul slamming his third glass of Jack Daniels mixed with Coke on the table. The atmosphere was heavy.

"Well, whatever happens, we can handle it," Soul said, eyes closed for effect.

I smiled, the tension in the Red Room dissipating.

"You mean _I_, the god, Black*Star, can handle it!" Black*Star shouted, jumping on the table and pointing dramatically into the air.

Everyone rolled their eyes, except Soul, who jumped on the table with Black*Star and started bickering with him, "You idiot! You ruined my moment!"

"Just my presence sets the atmosphere!" Black*Star shouted back at Soul.

I sighed and debated the consequences of stepping in and ending this. The last thing I wanted was the two to start a brawl in here. They could both do serious damage to the place, even if alcohol wasn't involved.

The two continued bickering, Tsubaki politely tugging on Black*Star's arm, trying to get him to back down. This was responded to with a "Black*Star never backs down from anything!"

I sighed and slumped into the plush sofa. This could only end in some sort of a disaster.

Kid abruptly stood up with an annoyed look on his face. "I think we should call it night, shouldn't we gentlemen?"

The two short-fused boys continued staring each other down, but finally retreated off the table and didn't say anything else. I mouthed a quick "Thanks" to Kid, who merely nodded and made to leave.

Soul hastily snatched his jacket saying, "Come on, Maka, it's late." He slung his coat over his shoulder and grabbed my elbow.

I barely got to tell anyone 'good-bye' before he whisked me out of the room and back into the pulsing club. Sometimes I will never understand him.


	2. Plane to Catch

A/N: Sorry I didn't leave an explanation on my last chapter, kinda forgot (-_-) This is my new Soul Eater multi-chapter story! The last chapter was basically an introduction/pilot for the awesomeness that is imminent. I have stuff pretty well figured out, thanks to sudden creative bursts at 1 o'clock in the morning ^_^ so I shall be updating pretty regularly. I hope you enjoy! Commentary welcome!

* * *

Chapter 2

**_Plane to Catch_**

Stupid Black*Star! Always ruining my cool moments! I left Maka waiting by the stairs as I went to go pay the tab. She leaned awkwardly against the wall, watching all the roving bodies, hand by the gun strapped to her thigh under her short dress. Man, I loved that dress. She wore a strapless black cocktail dress that accentuated all of her curves she magically developed when she turned 18, but not as much as Tsubaki. Now that chick was eye-candy.

Ok, focus, back to the bar tender. I approached the bar tender and whipped out a large wad of cash. This place wasn't cheap.

"For the Death party," I stated, slapping a few twenties on the counter.

The bar tender, a tall muscular man with one of those old fashioned handle bar mustaches, grunted with a nod. He wasn't much of a friend or foe, we just liked him because he kept quiet. We didn't want people knowing where our group met regularly, that would be so uncool.

I tossed another ten towards him, saying, "And that's for the chick who took our drinks."

The man nodded and grunted again, then went off to attend to other customers. I cooly turned around, ready to grab my partner and leave. She was still leaning against the wall, but a group of guys seemed to have migrated near her. The smart girl that she was ignored them with upturned nose, tapping her foot impatiently. Jeeze, why'd she have to wear that dress again? I'd forgotten what a creep magnet it was.

I strolled over nonchalantly and placed myself strategically between her and the creeps, leaning over her with my arm resting on the wall right above her head. She looked up at me crossly, her emerald eyes burning with the accusation of, "you're such a jerk."

"Ready to go, baby?" I asked, grinning at the look she was now giving me, but she didn't protest. She hated it when I called her that. Almost as much as flatty or tiny-tits . . . almost.

In one fluid motion, I slid my hand down the wall and linked her arm with mine, dragging her off to the car. I glanced over my shoulder, shooting a glare at the creeps. They looked a little disappointed. As they should be! Pervs!

Anyway, I lead her out to the little parking lot behind the nightclub, hitting the unlock button on the key chain. A sleek, black sports car with tinted windows and everything beeped and lit up a couple rows back. We hopped in and I sped off towards our apartment.

I unlocked the door to our apartment and entered, flicking on the light. Maka silently followed. Tossing the keys on the little kitchen table, I glanced at the clock: one in the morning. Lovely. Good thing it was Saturday. There were some scuffling sounds in the doorway. I looked towards the source and found Maka bracing herself with the door frame as she attempted to slip off her sexy stilettos.

"A little wobbly there, princess?" I jeered.

"Shut up!" she responded, flinging the last shoe off in my direction. She shut and locked the front door before trouncing off to her room, the door abruptly closing.

She's always so defensive when she's tipsy. I remember the first time I got her drunk on her 21st. Let's just say, she can't hold her liquor. I had taken her to the same nightclub we just left, only we were out on the dance floor and stuff. She started to get up on the tables and strip! I was about to enjoy the show, but Tsubaki shot me one of those glances that told me it would be best if I took her home. I had to sling her over my shoulder and carry her the whole way. She was still a little strung up when we arrived. I barely even set her down in the doorway when she jumped me, crashing her lips into mine, practically making out with me. An uncool guy would have taken advantage of her like that, but being the cool dude that I am, I simply picked her up mid lip-lock and plopped her in her bed. That was it. And for the record, that was the _only_ time we've ever kissed. The next morning, after a cold shower and coffee, she was back to her usual, moody self, as if nothing happened. Honestly, I think she forgot. Chances are she was so wasted she probably doesn't even remember it was her birthday. From now on, I just make sure to keep an eye on how many glasses she's downed.

I chuckled softly to myself in the kitchen, recalling that night. I don't think I'll ever get to see her that wild again. Too bad too, cuz it was funny as hell!

I sauntered into my room, humming one of my latest piano tunes while taking off my suit coat and shirt. Bare chested, I walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth.

"Night!" I called through Maka's door. No reply. Whatever.

I began scrubbing at my sharp, pearly-whites when I heard a soft voice next to me say, "Soul?"

I turned towards the meek voice all uncool like with a toothbrush hanging out of my mouth and toothpaste dribbling down my chin. Maka leaned against the door frame twisting her hands together awkwardly. She wore only a large t-shirt that was probably one of mine.

"Cha?" I asked, more foam dripping past my lips.

"Good night, Soul," she replied softly, then left followed by a soft click of her bedroom door.

Okay . . . that was interesting.

Soon after, I passed out in my own bed, not even bothering to shut the door.

I awoke to the sound of humming and the shower running. Probably Maka. I don't know when she picked up that habit, but she would hum now in the mornings. As if she wasn't already annoying enough so early! I grunted and rolled over, trying to go back to sleep. My head kept swimming. Hangover? Couldn't be, I didn't have that much to drink. Damn humming. Seriously, it's not like she's that great at it either. Always off tune, I would know.

The shower suddenly stopped, but the humming didn't. Great. As if to make matters worse, the phone rang. Loud as hell, too. I waited. Of course, tiny-tits wouldn't get it. I grumpily rolled out of bed and slouched my way to the kitchen.

I almost dropped the phone twice before it finally found its way to my mouth.

The voice on the other end was almost frantic. "Soul? Soul? Is that you?"

"Yeah, yeah, what do you want?"

"Soul, it's Kid."

"Yeah?"

Kid sighed on the other end. "Just put Maka on. I have a feeling _she_ won't fall asleep while I'm talking."

"Hold on, she's in the shower. MAKA!"

"WHAT?" she screeched from the bathroom.

"Phone!"

"WHAT?" she screeched again, whipping open the door this time. She was still wet and only had a towel wrapped around her thin frame. It's not like this was the first time I've seen her like this, we live together for crying out loud, but I still found it hard to be coherent when she was like that, even if she was blazing angry at me.

"Phone! It's Kid," I responded, holding out the phone to her.

She marched over and snatched the phone out of my hand. The scent of her honey lotion wafted in my direction, temporarily distracting me. "And you couldn't take the call because . . . ?"

"I just woke up, woman! Don't expect me to think straight!"

"And _I _just got out of the shower!"

"So?"

"'So?' Soul, you're such a jerk sometimes!"

"And you're such a bitch sometimes!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

". . . Um . . . hello?" came a weak voice out of the phone. Shit, we both forgot we were arguing about the phone call.

"Kid? Oh, I'm so sorry! What's up?" Maka piped up, expression changing almost immediately.

"Uh, yeah . . . well anyways, Maka," Kid began. I growled and started making some coffee. Maka absent mindedly strolled towards the steamy bathroom, out of ear shot.

"Uh huh . . . really? . . . oh ok . . . right away? . . . uh huh, I see. Alright, we'll be there! . . . yep! You too, Kid! Bye!" She pressed the off button and placed the phone on the small kitchen table, dropping the cute girl persona.

Without missing a beat, she marched back to the bathroom, announcing, "We've got a plane to catch at three," and slammed the door shut.

* * *

"I thought you said pack for a few days?"

"Soul, this _is_ me packed for a few days!"

"Yeah, if we were _hiking_ to Hawaii!"

"You know what? We don't have time for this right now. Just call the cab."

"Fine. Jeeze woman."

Maka grumpily marched off, probably to try to figure out a way to box up her dresser or something. I whipped open my cell phone and dialed the number for a cab. We had only an hour to get to the airport and catch that plane. Apparently Kid just received orders from his father to go investigate something in Hawaii. I thought it was odd for us to be sent on a simple investigation mission. We're a special ops team of highly trained techs and weapons, not a snoop team. Whatever.

The cab arrived twenty minutes later. And guess who had to carry all her damn luggage out to the car? Yeah, me.

It wasn't a long trip to the airport, just cramped since what we couldn't fit in the trunk had to go in the backseat with us. By the time we arrived, we only had a half hour to board. Kid kept texting Maka, wondering where we were since everyone else was already on the plane.

We had to pass through those metal detector thingies before we were cleared to board. Maka walked through with ease, of course, but it beeped when I went through. The security guard stopped me with one of those dumb wands. He was your stereotypical security dude: balding, large gut, furry mustache, beady eyes, and a permanent scowl.

"Excuse me, sir, but I need to check you again," he boomed suspiciously.

Maka glared at me. I sheepishly grinned and held out my arms to be wanded. The man passed the buzzing wand over me in a rhythmic pattern, stopping over my back pocket.

"What do we have here?" the man asked, tilting his head. He reached into my back pocket and pulled out my switch blade.

"Oh yeah, guess I forgot about that," I chuckled, trying to appear innocent.

"Sir, I'm going to have to confiscate this."

"What?"

"Soul! What the hell are you doing with a switchblade in an airport?" Maka yelled at me. Maka is one of those people that tend to make situations even worse than they already are.

"Sir, you're going to have to come with me for further questioning," the guard said, grabbing my arm as if I was going to bolt.

"Wait!" Maka exclaimed, tugging on my other arm. "Officer, I'm sure he just forgot to take it out of his pocket. Please, we really need to catch our plane."

"Sorry Miss, but it's protocol to take into custody anyone found with a weapon."

Oh the ironies.

"What? Please, sir, we're not terrorists or anything, we just need to catch our plane!"

"Ma'am, you're going to have to come too."

"What? Wait! I-I'm innocent in all of this!"

"Ma'am, don't make me call for backup."

Maka sighed and her grip on my arm loosened. The guard led us off towards the back of the terminal, Maka muttering under her breath, "I'm _so_ going to kill you, Soul Eater!"

We ended up in one of those creepy interrogation rooms with the steel door and whitewashed walls. Maka sat in the single chair against the wall as we waited for the guard to come back. She didn't say anything or even look at me. That was not a good sign.

With a heavy squeak, the steel door was shoved open and the officer returned.

"Look," he said, almost letting up on his scowl, "since you've both been cooperative I'll just strip search you," he pointed to me, "and you guys can leave."

"Strip search?" I asked, indignant.

"Yes, don't worry, it's not that bad."

"Soul, just do it!" Maka yelled from behind me.

"Fine." I ground out, beginning to take off my shirt and tossed it to Maka.

The guy got me down to my boxers before I stopped.

"That should be good enough," he said. Jeeze, I felt like I was back in high school when I got caught cheating. "You're good to go. Get dressed and hand the check-point guard this slip of paper."

"Thanks," I gritted and snatched the slip from his meaty little fingers. He left us soon after.

I turned to get my clothes from Maka, but she sat there, cute little mouth slightly agape, eyes showing shock. Giving her my classic smirk, I traced a line with my finger down her cheek, along her jaw, and to her chin where I snapped her mouth shut.

"I know I'm stunningly hot, but please, drooling is so uncool."

Her mouth hardened into a straight line and her eyes seemed to burst into flames. "I'm not gaping at _that_, you idiot! Look at the time!"

She lunged, shoving her cell phone in my face. By the time my eyes focused I saw the little digital clock read 3:28 PM.

Shit.

* * *

Great. Now she was pissed at me and we had to sit there for another two hours on those stupid plastic chairs, the world's most uncomfortable chairs ever made! Seriously, I think my ass is asleep already! I yanked out my iPod and popped the ear buds in, Three Days Grace drowning out the noise of the busy airport. Maka whipped out her paperback, making sure to turn her body away from me, giving me the "cold shoulder" in every sense of the stupid idiom. This was so not cool.

Some random young guy suddenly sat down across from Maka, taking a full scope of her long, pale legs. This could only mean trouble. I couldn't hear anything, but he said something, pointing at the book Maka was reading, and she replied nodding and smiling. They continued to make polite conversation for a few minutes, referring to Maka's book here and there. A couple associates of the first dude sat down with him, adding to the conversation. I felt slightly sick. What _was_ this? The fucking airport book club?

I was getting restless. Time to do something! I jumped up and stretched a bit, looking around for something to do, maybe something to eat. My eyes landed on a coffee booth called Uncle Bob's Coffee. That'll do.

Shoving my iPod in my cargo pocket, I approached the stand. A red-head chick popped up from behind the counter. A little young for my taste, but not too bad in the looks department.

"What can I get for you, sir?" she politely asked, smiling sweetly.

"Cup of Columbia, black."

"Be right back!" she said and flitted around getting my coffee.

I glanced up at the menu, "Today's Special: Hazelnut" in bold neon letters. Hmmm, Hazelnut was Maka's favorite. Taking a peek over my shoulder, I saw that even more "gentlemen" were hovering around her now. She always made cracks at my chick-magnet tendencies, but she'd never admit that she can "hail a taxi" as good as any other girl out there, if you know what I mean.

"Here you go!" the red-head smiled, presenting the coffee to me in one of those new "environmentally friendly" bio-degradable cups. Weren't cardboard cups already bio-degradable? Whatever.

"I'll take a cup of the Hazelnut, too. With cream," I stated plainly.

"No problem!" The girl flitted off again.

I placed the money on the counter when she got me the two cups. "Keep the change," I said, winking at her. She fumbled with the cash and let some of her red locks fall in front of her blushing face. I smirked to myself. Get's them every time!

I strode over towards Maka's fan/book club and dangled the cup of Hazelnut in front of her face. She received the cup, as if she had expected it, not even a pause in her conversation. I plopped back down next to her, slouching to attempt to be more comfortable, and put my arm loosely on the back of her seat.

Once again, the hard rock music drowned out the scene taking place around me. Though my messy bangs covered my eyes, I could still see the original book club guy talking animatedly. I didn't hear what he said, but the word "boyfriend" crossed his lips at least a couple times. Maka simply smiled and nodded. Soon the guys began checking their watches distractedly, and, one by one, left.

I hit pause and looked over at Maka through two large white spikes of hair that hung in my face. "Boyfriend, huh?" I teased.

"Those guys had a creep factor of 7, Soul," she stated, matter-of-factly, not even looking up from her book. "They didn't even know much about Shakespeare, just recycling little bits of knowledge everybody knows about him. I had to get rid of them somehow."

"Sure, whatever you say, Princess," I chuckled, hitting the play button again.

Five o'clock rolled around in no time. Soon we were already boarded and getting ourselves situated in our seats. The stewardess, a tall blonde chick with a low cut blouse, bustled about checking up on everyone before takeoff.

Suddenly I felt a warm weight on my shoulder. It was Maka's head. I shifted myself a little so she'd be more comfortable and even placed my own head on hers. The book in her hands started to slip and eventually ended up resting on my leg. She was obviously falling asleep. I gently kissed the top of her head and wrapped an arm around her waist; all the bickering and fighting of this day totally forgotten.

* * *

A/N: Nwaaaa! So cute! C'mon you all were thinking that! Hahaha. Well, I invite you to please hit the REVIEW button and give me some feed back on this! Don't make me beg!


	3. Misery Love Me

_**Misery Love Me**_

_**

* * *

**_

"You actually listen to this _crap_?"

This was the first thing Soul had said to me as my official roommate the day I _allowed_ him to move into _my_ apartment. I had been listening to some pop tunes while dusting the living room.

He snatched my iPod from its dock and began going through it. "Geeze, don't you have anything cool to listen to in here?" he sneered.

Suddenly I was rethinking this whole cohabitation thing.

"Well, it's my music and I happen to like it," I snapped back, roughly snatching my iPod out of his clutches.

"You actually like dudes who sing like girls? '_I might sound crazy but it aint no lie_'" he sang in a mockingly high pitched voice.

"At least it's better than that dumb metal stuff you and Black*Star listen to! '_**Rrrrrrit's not my faurrrrrrrrt!**_'" I garbbled, equally as mocking.

"_I was such a fool for you._"

"_**Rrrrrand rook at what rou've done to me!**_**"**

"_Oh baby, baby_"

"_**Rrrrrraaaaah huh!**_**"**

"_Hit me baby_— hahaha— _one more time!_"

By this time we could continue no longer, we were laughing so hard. Soul was down on the floor; I was propping myself up with a bookshelf. Finally, after almost turning blue from lack of oxygen, we gulped mouthfuls of air and wiped tears from our eyes.

Soul picked himself up from the floor, breathing hard and reaching for the iPod. "Well, I guess that settles it then, we're not listening to _that_ anymore."

_THUD!_

I had grabbed the nearest object, a sizeable dictionary, and chucked it at his head. He had landed unceremoniously on the floor.

"No." I said sternly, pressing play and continuing to clean around his crumpled body .

I guess you could say that was my first 'Maka Chop' and one of my favorite memories with Soul.

* * *

Things went rather smoothly from the landing to the cab ride and the arrival at the hotel. Except a certain someone kept whining about carrying my luggage. Jeeze, what a wuss.

"Well, due to the 'setbacks' we're going to have to head out first thing in the morning," Kid said. We were in the hotel lobby waiting for the elevator; Soul was passed out somewhere amongst a pile of luggage.

"Hey, it's all _his_ fault!" I replied, jerking my thumb to the luggage behind me.

Kid put up his hands. "I don't want to go there right now. Just make sure you're not late for the actual mission, okay?"

I moodily glared at the luggage. "Trust me, _he's_ not going to make us late again."

"Maka! You gotta see the pool! It's AMAZING!" Patty screamed while running through the lobby.

Kid sweatdropped and excused himself before Patty could break something.

The elevator dinged and the doors opened as something stirred in the luggage.

"Well, get the luggage in," I ordered.

"You get the luggage in! It's all yours anyways!" Soul grumbled from the pile.

"You're making a scene. Now get it in."

"But you're – it's – I –"

"You don't make sense. Hurry, before someone calls the elevator away!" I started shuffling bags and suitcases onto the waiting elevator. Soul grumbled a little more before joining me.

Suddenly a hand was on my shoulder. It was Kid.

"Oh, and Maka?" he said low in my ear.

"Yeah?"

"Just a heads up: there seems to be a lot of tension between Black*Star and Tsubaki."

"Really? Well, I guess I haven't seen them together in a while."

"Yeah." Kid paused and glanced around before continuing. "I don't know if they got in a fight or something, but Tsubaki doesn't seem happy and Black*Star's ignoring her. Things were slightly awkward on the plane."

"That _is_ strange."

"Just keep an ear out in case Tsubaki says anything, like if they broke up or something."

"Did they?"

"Not that I know of. I just can't have dissentions in the team right now."

"Right. I'll try and see what's up."

"Thanks, Maka."

"Kid! Look! This man has a funny hat!" Patty squealed from somewhere in the lobby.

"Patty!" Kid shouted and ran over to her to stop her from whatever she was about to do.

* * *

_Shit!_ I had already upturned all the couch cushions, tore through the closet, and ransacked the bathroom. My cell phone was nowhere to be found! I rushed into the bedroom, ignoring Soul's odd look as he was getting dressed.

"Have you seen my phone?" I asked, rummaging through my suitcase on the floor and making my way under my bed.

There was no response. I glanced up from my bent over position to see if he was even in the room still. He stood there with his shirt over his arms, but not partaking in the actual act of putting it on. What was this idiot's problem? I knew he wasn't a morning person, but really?

"Soul!"

"Huh? Oh, your phone. Umm . . . no?" He proceeded to put his shirt on. Then he turned to me, tossing me his own phone. "Here," he said, "try calling it." His phone looked exactly like mine, but it was red and mine was green.

I flipped open the phone and found my name immediately on speed dial. We both waited, holding our breath. Soon a muffled vibrating along with a jazz tune was heard from a pile of Soul's clothes in the corner. He went over there and sifted through the laundry, fishing out a pair of jeans he had worn the other day, and dug around in the pocket.

"What were you doing with _my_ phone?" I accused, shooting him a glare as I took my phone from him.

"Hell, I don't know! I just remember finding it in my lap on the plane."

"Whatever, Soul."

Great. _Five missed calls_. Let's see, one was from . . . oh that can be ignored. It was a call from "the womanizer," aka sleezeball-dad. The other four were from Kid. I sighed and hit the call back button. Soul continued getting ready around me as I stood there with one hand on my hip, the other pressing a phone to my ear.

Soul's mumblings ceased suddenly, causing me to look in his direction. He was staring at me, eyes combing my exposed legs. What the hell?

"What?" he asked defensively upon seeing my glare.

"Keep your eyes to yourself, buddy!"

Soul scowled back and left the room, calling over his shoulder, "Don't you think those are a little short for the jungle we'll be wading through, Princess?"

"Excuse me? I think you're just jealous I'm gonna get stared— Kid! Hi! I'm so sorry! I couldn't find my phone cuz Soul had it and – what?"

"I _said_ you're late," Kid said impatiently. "You two need to get down here now. We're leaving in ten."

"Hai!"

I slapped the phone shut while yelling, "Soul! We need to leave, NOW!"

"Alright, alright! Jeeze woman!" Soul spat back appearing in the bedroom again.

Everyone was already waiting in the lobby by the time we made it there. Kid was impatiently tapping his foot, arms crossed over his symmetrically perfect suit coat. Liz was texting someone while Patty was playing in the dirt of a potted plant, and Tsubaki stood quietly off to the side of Kid.

"Where's Black*Star?" Soul asked, glancing around.

I noticed Tsubaki glance up at the mention of his name, but quickly looked away at a stain on the carpet.

"He went off to get the chopper," Kid said, uncrossing his arms and heading towards us. "We need to be taken to our starting point by helicopter since it's pretty deep in the jungle I guess."

"Ah." I glanced around the lobby, noticing the other guests milling around, and then turned my attention to Tsubaki. Now Tsubaki was never one to make her presence known, but her gentle nature spoke powerfully enough. Usually she was smiling, always positive despite the circumstances, yet today she looked like she was going to cry.

Remembering what Kid had told me last night, I quietly approached her.

"Hey Tsubaki."

"Hm? Oh, hi there Maka-chan." She managed a small smile before returning her gaze downwards.

"Is something bothering you, Tsubaki?" Might as well get straight to the point. The way Kid kept looking at his watch, it looked like we would be leaving any minute.

Tsubaki glanced up at me sheepishly. "I just didn't sleep too well last night, I guess," she said quietly.

"HEYAHOO! The chopper has arrived!" Black*Star burst into the lobby, making us and the other guests jump and go silent.

"Way to be subtle," Soul mumbled. Kid simply rolled his eyes and led us out to the landing pad.

The helicopter was sleek and black, perfect for a stealth mission like ours. It took some impatient fumbling to figure out how to strap myself in, even with Soul's help. But finally I managed, allowing us to take off.

We were in the air for about an hour, hovering over miles of rolling jungles, taking us deeper into the island's center. Soul dozed on my shoulder despite Black*Star and Patty playing random noisy games to kill the boredom, and Liz and Tsubaki made polite conversation. I tried to catch what they were saying, but I only got every fourth word or so with the sudden raises in volume coming from Black*Star and Patty.

Kid, who was sitting on the other side of me towards the window, suddenly nudged me.

"Hm?" I snapped out of my day dreaming.

He showed me a touch screen GPS with a map of the island displayed and a series of red lines indicating the differences in elevation.

"Here's where we're headed," he said, pointing to a red ring that indicated the highest elevation. "That's the center of the island, where my Father said they picked up odd bands of insanity waves."

"Odd bands?"

"Yeah, they weren't what you would think as normal for insanity waves. He didn't go into much detail. Guess it's irrelevant."

"Oh, ok."

"We'll be landing just outside of there, on a gentler slope, and we'll walk there. You and Soul need to be positioned at the head when we reach this outer ring here. That way, you'll be able to inform us of any danger with your soul perception. Black*Star will be nearby, since he's the quickest to react to any danger. You might want to use the hand signals we worked on. I'll be positioned in the rear with the insanity reader Stein made, taking measurements."

"Got it."

"We shouldn't run into any trouble, but they wouldn't have sent us if that wasn't a high possibility."

"Yeah, I'm surprised they sent all of us instead of just a pair with some Shibussen students."

"Knowing my father, he has his reasons." Kid slipped the GPS device into his coat pocket and turned to look out the window, lost in thought.

The helicopter jerked suddenly, causing me to fly forward, jacking Soul in the jaw with my shoulder.

His eyes bugged out of his head as he gripped his jaw and made gurgling noises.

"Soul?" I tentatively asked, moving to comfort him.

He brushed me off and did a series of putting his hand inside his mouth and pulling it out to look at it. Blood was on his fingertips.

"Fuck. I bit my tongue."

"I'm sorry— hey! Watch your language!" I chided him. He's gotten into the habit of flinging around the 'F-word' like it's no big deal. It's a highly offensive word if you ask me!

He sighed and groped at our feet for my backpack, knowing I had to have some Kleenex in there. "Really Maka? No one else seems to be so offended." He pulled up the bag in triumph, thrusting his hand in the main pocket.

"Left pocket."

He removed his hand from the main pocket and dug around in the front left pocket. I must have had a tampon in there or something because he paused to look in there and paled a little. Then he finally pulled out the little packet of Kleenex and stuffed them all into his mouth.

"Save some for later, Soul!"

Soul simply glared at me, white fluff sticking out of his mouth.

"_Please remain seated. Landing in progress_," a woman's voice from the autopilot program informed us.

We landed in a small clearing at the base of the central mountain. As we clambered out of the copter, we were reverently silent before the thick jungles that faced us on the mountain side. Soul came up next to me, spit out his slobbery Kleenexes, and whispered, "Why's it so quiet?"

"I don't know." I said slowly and quietly.

"It might be an effect of the strange insanity waves," whispered Kid. "C'mon, let's get moving."

It took twice as long as the flight to maneuver ourselves through the dense underbrush. Soul walked ahead, slicing a path and grumbling under his breath, something about not being a machete. We remained completely silent during our journey, only whispering if we absolutely had to speak.

The jungle thinned the higher we got in elevation. Soon there were only shrubs spotted here and there. It felt like I could breathe again once we cleared all that suffocating undergrowth. We all fell into formation, walking beside our partners, except for Tsubaki who trailed behind Soul and me. I reached up and slipped my hand into Soul's, who glanced down at me. Our eyes communicated our fears about this mission, leading to him giving my hand a slight squeeze. Then I looked back toward Tsubaki walking with head down a few steps behind. I paused for her to catch up and held out my other hand. She stopped and lifted up her head, a quizzical expression on her face. I simply smiled and persistently held out my hand for her. Smiling softly, she reached up and grabbed my hand. So the three of us brought up the rear, walking with clasped hands swinging between us, towards the epicenter of the irregular insanity waves.

"We're approaching the mark. Positions please," whispered Kid, so official sounding, as usual.

Tsubaki broke off and joined Black*Star who seemed to vanish in the little vegetation around us. Soul transformed into his scythe form soon after. Patty and Liz flanked Kid, but remained in their human form. Holding Soul in my defensive stance, I strained to sense any other souls besides the team's, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary except for a burning, itching feeling in my chest that seemed to intensify the closer we got to the strange wavelengths. I felt Soul tense in my hands, also feeling the effects of the waves.

Glancing back, I saw Kid give the signal that we were right on top of it. The burning, itching feeling intensified, but did not hinder me. However, I knew I was getting off easy because of my—_ahem_— special anti-demon abilities, yet my team, especially Soul, was probably using half their strength to remain in control of themselves.

There was a small ring of vegetation, directly where Kid was pointing. We all tensed, knowing it must be the place. I signaled that the coast was clear, and we moved forward. We walked slowly, deliberately, towards this circle, expecting the worst to happen. Little bumps and glitches appeared along the harmonizing bond between Soul and me the closer we got. He was slipping.

Finally, we stepped through the thin ring of vegetation and into the little clearing. It was only large enough to fit all seven of us without squishing us. Suddenly, the burning disappeared along with the glitches in our soul connection.

"What?" whisper-cried Kid, staring at his detection device. "They're gone."

"What?" we all said in unison, no longer silent. I tried to 'feel' around again for any sign of anyone or any danger.

"The waves. They're gone! Maka, did you sense anything?"

"Nothing but the effects vanishing," I responded, just as bewildered as Kid.

"Wait, they just disappeared?" Black*Star said, waving his arms indignantly. "We came all that way for them to disappear? And no fight either?"

"Well, yeah, pretty much," Kid sighed, looking defeated and allowing his weapons to go back into human form. "We've collected all the data we could get, too. I guess we can head back now."

There were some moans from the rest of us, me included. It was all rather strange and abrupt; I had difficulty understanding what had just happened.

"I'll call the chopper. Since there's no more danger, it can pick us up from here."

* * *

The bath was so warm and relaxing, especially in the rather large, luxurious bathtub of our fancy hotel room. I felt all the frustrations and weariness from our jungle excursion melt away; all my scrapes and scratches stinging pleasantly. I sunk deeper into the vanilla scented bubbles and sighed.

"Maka!" Soul called from the other side of the door, startling me. This was followed by two raps on the wood and a weird buzzing sound.

"Yeah?" I called back.

The door cracked open just a little. "Your phone's going off like crazy. It's your Dad."

"Great." I sighed in frustration, keeping an eye on that door, just in case. Luckily the tub was behind the door. "Just don't answer it."

"I tried that already! He just keeps calling!"

"Well, I'm obviously busy, can't you answer it?"

"Fine. Fine." The buzzing ceased as he flipped open my phone. "What?" Soul rudely barked into the phone.

"MAAAKAAA! WHERE'S MY MAAAAKAAAA?" yelled the whiny voice on the other end.

"She's busy right now. What do you want?" Soul angrily replied.

"TO TALK TO MY DAUGHTER! She's been ignoring my calls . . ." There was some whimpering coming from the phone.

"I told ya, we're busy!"

"WE?"

I could almost feel Soul's smirk. "Yeah," he slyly said, "_we're_ in the bath."

I burst into a fit of giggles both for show and because this was down right hilarious. I splashed a little too, I think.

"WHAT? YOU'RE BOTH IN THE BATH? SOOOUUULLL! HOW DARE YOU TOUCH MY BABY GIRL! WAIT? IS THAT HER I HEAR?"

Soul's arm appeared around the barely open door giving me the thumbs-up sign. I continued giggling, a little louder this time.

"I DO HEAR HER! MAAAKAAA! WHY?" The rest was unintelligible sobs. Finally, I heard the slap of my phone being slammed shut. I burst into full out laughter.

"Your Dad's gonna kill me when we get home."

"HAHAHAHAA! That was brilliant!"

"You owe me for that. He's gonna seriously kill me this time."

"Oh, please, you're a death scythe now too, so it won't be that easy."

Soul groaned, "Whatever. Well, hurry up, would ya? Dinner's in a half hour and Kid's paying."

"Alright, alright. I'll be out soon."

Soul snorted and shut the bathroom door. I couldn't help giggling some more. He was right, my Papa probably will kill him this time, in between being a sobbing mess of course. The image made me laugh even more.

* * *

A/N: Sorry it took longer than expected to upload! I had friend drama of the worst kind to deal with and financial drama with my new University so I've been a little preoccupied. Not sure if I'm such a big fan of this chapter, but it needed to get the ball rolling. Next few chapters are plot and action packed, with lots of suspenseful endings and whatnot that are in the final stages of writing! Therefore, please REVIEW so that I will feel compelled to write more!

Oh and thanks to everyone who did review and add me as a fav! If I had a million dollars, I'd send you a custom T-shirt made by _moi_ but alas, I am poor college kid.


	4. Kill the Messenger

A/N: Just a quick thank you to everyone who reviewed and favorited my story! And to my bestie, **endsoftime**, for helping me sort things out for this chapter, hope you like the final product!

* * *

Chapter 4

_**Kill the Messenger**_

There's this picture that I have of Maka that has always been my favorite picture of her. No, it's not one of her in a smokin' hot dress at prom or graduation or anything like that. And it's not one of those angled ones where you can kind of see down her shirt. No. It's probably one of the worst photo's you've ever seen.

Patty took the picture, actually. Burst into our apartment one day and started snapping away. I really don't think Patty was even intentionally taking a picture of Maka, she just showed up in the picture, along with a blurry object in the bottom right corner that I decided was probably Patty's finger. Anyway, in the photo Maka is slumped over a book on the arm of the couch, sleeping. Her face is all smooshed up against it, drooling most likely, and her lanky limbs are all sprawled out, along with her disheveled hair. The camera angle and lighting show perfectly the chipping walls behind her as well as a few dark stains on the couch. The photo itself is all crinkled and creased from keeping it in various pockets and wallets over the years since high school. There's just something about this terrible picture of her that makes me want to never let it go. And god forbid she ever finds out I have it.

* * *

Over the past few weeks, more insanity wave disturbances had cropped up all over the place. I've never traveled so much in my life! Although, it helped me avoid Maka's crazy-ass father from attacking me over the whole bathtub thing.

Every time we'd arrive at the location of the insanity waves, though, they'd mysteriously disappear. And no one could figure out why.

The routine was: drop whatever we were doing at the time, hop on a plane to destination X, crawl across a desert, the ocean, or the_ arctic_, then be utterly disappointed when the waves disappeared _again_. Well, there was usually some bickering along the way, but that wasn't out of the ordinary on our missions anyway.

It had become a real anomaly (I think that's the term Maka used) which disturbed and distressed Shibussen something fierce. Maka was increasingly spending all her free time, time not spent on _pointless_ missions, going to the library and remaining there for hours at a time doing whatever the hell bookworms do. I'd simply work out, hang out with Black*Star, or pass out from sheer exhaustion in front of the TV after an 8 hour flight to a god-forsaken-place-of-disappearing-wavelengths.

It was one of those nights again. We had recently returned from some cold piece-of-shit tundra in Canada, and I was exhausted while Maka decided to run off to the library. I was just beginning to fall asleep (you know when your body feels warm and heavy and the blue glow of the television flickers through your half-closed eyes), when I heard a key in the front door. Assuming it was only Maka, I remained where I was in my drowsy bliss hoping she'd be quite about entering.

The door opened slowly, followed by quick, light footsteps, then the door closing very quietly. She must've seen I was trying to sleep. How thoughtful.

She didn't take off her shoes at the entryway, oddly enough, but at least she seemed to be tip-toeing as she walked around. The floor creaked, indicating she was shifting her weight somewhere along the threshold between the kitchen and living room. Soon, I heard the soft steps come onto the carpet of the living room, and a black shape blocked the television's ghostly light.

"S-Soul-kun?" a soft, very high-pitched voice asked, gently shaking my shoulder.

My eyes flew open at the voice: this wasn't Maka at all!

I jumped up onto the back of the couch, my arm a deadly blade.

"Soul-kun! It's me!" the girl said. I blinked a few times and noticed the black shape was very curvy and was nervously gripping her long black pony tail, indigo eyes very wide.

"Tsubaki?"

"Soul-kun! I'm so sorry to come here like this!" she whimpered, shrinking back towards the television a little.

I shook my head and transformed my blade back into my arm. "Uh, no, it's-it's ok," I mumbled, head still a little fuzzy from the sudden alarm. "Um, Maka's not here right now. She's at the library or something . . ."

I trailed off, scratching the back of my head awkwardly.

"Oh, that's ok," she smiled, coming closer to me. "I actually, um, came to see you."

Well this just got a hell of a lot awkward. Let me stress: this was my best friend's HOT girlfriend coming to see me.

"Uh, ok . . . what do you need?" I shifted into a better sitting position, making room next to me for her. Tsubaki didn't hesitate to plop herself down, hands clasped in a wringing motion around her hair.

"Well, um, I'm . . . I'm worried about Black*Star," she said, timid voice on the verge of tears.

I had a sinking feeling all of a sudden.

"You're his best friend," she continued, glancing at me shyly, "maybe you could, um, clear things up for me?"

I sighed and settled back into the cushions. "Ok, shoot."

She took a deep breath and flung her pony tail behind her back. "Well, he's been acting really . . . weird lately. Not his usual weird, just different."

I grunted in understanding.

"And, well, it's like he's deliberately avoiding me, and that's really hard to do in our small apartment, you know? At first I thought I was just being silly and imagining things, but then I noticed how lonely I suddenly felt, like something didn't seem right. I tried talking to him about it, but he. . . well, he yelled at me."

She suddenly started sniffing and making little gurgling noises. Oh great, I was no good at this! But I have to admit, I was shocked and slightly upset that he had yelled at her.

I waited for her to continue.

"That— _sniff_— that was three weeks ago before our plane ride to Hawaii."

Something in my brain sparked. Someone— maybe Maka— mentioning tension between the two. Yeah, ok, I kind of remember now.

"He's barely talked to me since." This statement earned some shuddered breaths as she tried to control her sobbing. "I don't know what to do. . . he's . . .I . . ."

Now she was fully sobbing into her hands.

Feeling like I should probably comfort her in some way, shape, or form, I stiffly patted her shoulder. Geeze, why can a cool guy like me never know what to do with a girl when they're being all emotional?

"Um, look, Tsubaki," I finally said after she had quieted down a little. "I'll do some _discreet_ snooping to see what's going through that big lug's head, ok? He shouldn't be yelling at you."

She stuttered, wiping her eyes on her sleeve, "O-ok. Th-thank you, Soul-kun. You're such a great friend." She paused to give me a weak smile, then said, "I should probably go."

"Yeah . . . probably."

Tsubaki stood up and gracefully flitted to the entryway.

"Oh, Tsubaki?" I said as she was opening front door.

"Hm?"

"You're always welcome here if, you know, he starts yelling at you again. Don't think that you need to always come with Black*Star because of me."

A smile appeared on her face, much brighter like her normal self. "Hai."

Then she was gone.

I sat there for a while staring at the television, not really watching it, just thinking. Maka did mention something about noticing tension like a week ago at dinner one night. I just ignored it as 'girl-stuff.'

Well, I was feeling hungry since Maka didn't leave me any dinner instructions before she left this afternoon, and it must be serious for timid Tsubaki to come to _me_, Mr. Shark-toothed albino (people do find it intimidating). So I decided to just call up Black*Star and get to the bottom of this. So much for my nap.

I dug between the couch cushions to recover my phone, flipped it open, and dialed Black*Star.

"Hey, Soul-my-man! What's goin' on?"

"Nothing much, dude. Hey, Maka left me to fend for myself tonight, wanna get a burger or something?"

"Hell yeah! Tsubaki hasn't been around either. Huh. Oh well, hey how about that new burger joint that opened downtown? Mc . . . Mc . . ."

"McGee's."

"Yeah! That place!"

"Okay, sounds good, Buddy. Be there in ten."

"YAAAHOOOO! See ya!"

Shoving my phone in my cargo pocket and snatching my house keys off the counter, I headed out to McGee's Diner just a few blocks from the apartment.

* * *

"You boys ready to order?" the waitress, a middle-aged lady who sounded as if she's smoked since her teens, asked us.

"Yeah! I'll have the Big & Meaty with a large onion ring!" exclaimed Black*Star, drooling over the picture in the laminated menu.

"And you, dear?"

"Um, the Southwestern will be fine, with fries."

"Alrighty boys, I'll put those in for ya." She took our menus and walked away.

"Hey! Look at this!" Black*Star shouted making several people in the joint jump. "They've got happy hour on game nights! 'Beer and Baseball.' Now this is my kind of place!"

"Ha, yeah, got that right," I enthusiastically responded.

Soon, the waitress returned with our drinks, Black*Star a root beer and me a Coke, but when I took a sip, I couldn't help but be uncomfortable with the taste.

"Can I get you boys anything else while you're waiting for your food?" she asked, tucking her pen behind her ear.

"Uh, yeah, can I have a Diet Coke instead, please?" I asked, hoping this would solve the problem of my discomfort.

"Yup, sure thing, Hon!" she said, and left once more.

"_Diet_?" Black*Star asked, clearly holding back an outburst.

"Yeah, _diet_. Maka's been on this diet kick, so it's all we got in the house. It's grown on me."

"Dude, she's got you whipped!" he retorted, laughing.

"Wait, what?" I squinted at the ketchup bottle wondering if I'd have to fight him for it when our food came. Probably.

"She's got _you_ whipped!"

"Because she only buys Diet Coke? I think you're confused."

"No, man! Trust me, I know the signs."

I closed my eyes and sighed in frustration. We were _supposed_ to be talking about him and Tsubaki, not me and Maka.

"Sooooo, when are ya gonna tie the knot-tuh?" he said while wiggling his eyes suggestively.

"What? We're not even dat—"

"Here ya go, sweetie," the waitress suddenly interrupted, swapping out my Coke for a diet.

"Uh, thanks," I responded and sipped at it. Ah, that was more like it.

Thankfully, talking to Black*Star is like talking to a girl in a shoe store (or in my case: Maka in a bookstore) and the conversation took so many random turns, I had forgotten all about the whole diet coke issue. And, of course, his raucous behavior earned us several heated glares from other patrons trying to watch the television over the bar, or families attempting to enjoy their meal.

Finally, our burgers were set before us, and Black*Star pounced on his almost immediately, making all kinds of disgusting noises and moaning in pleasure. I didn't consume so obnoxiously, but I was ravenous enough that there was a continuous flow of food from plate to mouth.

When we were picking at the remnants of our greasy feast, I attempted to bring up the subject I came here to discuss.

"So . . . how's you and Tsubaki been? We've all been running around so much, we haven't had time to just relax, unwind." I said, taking a swig of my Diet Coke.

Black*Star laughed and slapped the table loudly. "Got that right! We haven't even had a team meeting at Club Venus in over three weeks!"

"Yeah, it's been a while. But how have _you two_ been?"

Black*star smacked his lips and belched before responding calmly (for once), "We've been fine."

God dammit, why did this have to be so difficult? I knew this was going to be like pulling teeth, getting a serious conversation out of him.

"And you guys getting along ok?" I asked, not giving up so early. I hate these kinds of conversations. Dudes aren't supposed to sit around and talk about _relationships_. It's so not cool.

He didn't make eye contact, and I didn't know whether he was so demure out of the delicate subject matter or his exploding stomach.

"Maka's said something, hasn't she?" he asked suddenly.

"What? Uh, yes— I mean— no— I . . . I've noticed . . . stuff."

"Look," he said, making circles with his index finger in a puddle of glass-sweat. "You've only heard one half of the story, alright?"

"Well then, tell me the other half. What's going on?"

Black*Star still didn't look at me as he replied, "It's none of your damn business, Soul."

Then he stood and called out, "Check, please!" to our waitress. She nodded curtly and hurried off to get it. As we waited in a tense silence, he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye before returning to fiddling with something in his pocket.

"Look, Soul, you're my man, but I need to work this out for myself."

The waitress brought us the check, upon which he quickly paid and left. I soon followed, having to jog to catch up with him as he crossed the street, on the way to the apartments.

"But Black*Star, we're starting to get worried," I said, once I reached him.

His hand reached out all of a sudden, grabbed my shirt collar, and slammed me into the nearest wall, the last thing I expected.

"I told you," he said in a low, threatening tone complimented by an equally dark look, "it's _none of your business_. Do you think I care about what people think? I _know_ it takes me longer to think through stuff, but _I'm_ going to work this out _alone_. Just back the fuck off, Soul."

He let me go, then walked off in the opposite direction of our apartments.

Well that went well.

So I decided to not piss him off any further, and headed back home, feeling a shower and some sleep was needed. Plus, Maka would be home by now, possibly with something to distract me from the unpleasant and worried thoughts that plagued me at the moment. But by the time I reached the apartment, none of the lights were on. How strange. Why wouldn't she be home? It was usual for her to at least call if she was going to be out after dark.

"Maka?" I called as I opened the front door, in case she had simply gone to bed early. No reply.

I checked my phone. No missed calls, no new texts.

I didn't even bother to turn on any lights or wait for an indication she was coming home, I flipped open my phone and hit her speed-dial number.

What was that about me being whipped again?

* * *

A/N: PLEASE REVIEW! That's all I have to say, thank you.


	5. Don't Talk to Strangers

A/N: Thank you everyone who reviewed! I was so pleased to see so many people loving my work _and_ leaving comments! WEEE! Made my day last update! See if we can do it again, nya?

* * *

Chapter 5

_**Don't Talk to Strangers**_

I was right in the middle of some possibly key information regarding all this random insanity waves nonsense when my bag suddenly vibrated and a muffled jazz tune could be heard.

Soul's ringtone.

I fished through my bag and found the little singing device.

"Hello?"

"Hey, when are you coming home? It's dark out ya know?" he said, with a hint of worry.

"What? What time is it?"

"Geeze, you really _do_ zone out when your nose is in a book. It's after 8."

"Oh my gosh! Really?" I quickly glanced at a large clock on the wall. Crap, he was right.

"Should I come pick you up now?"

"Nah. I'll just walk home."

"At _this_ time of night? And lord knows what creeps are lurking out there!"

"Soul, I'll be fine."

"Maaaakaaa. . ."

"I'm one of the most lethal technicians, I think I can take care of myself."

"Yeah, a lethal technician _without her weapon_."

"I'll. Be. Fine."

"I'm coming to get you."

"No! Stop treating me like your damsel in distress all the time!"

"Fine! If you're going to be stubborn about it! I won't come get you!"

And with that he hung up on me.

* * *

I had forgotten how long of a walk it was from Shibussen's library to our apartment, and I had forgotten how fast it got dark around here. The streets were virtually deserted. Nothing escaped my soul perception radar, so I knew without even looking that no one was around. I don't know if that comforted me or scared me.

Ok maybe I should have waited for Soul to come get me.

No! I could handle myself! What was I? Five? I'm an adult, I can take care of myself!

"_Yeah, a lethal technician without her weapon."_

My heart quickened a little. No! Come on, Maka! You can do this! You're strong! You know plenty of hand-to-hand combat techniques to handle anything when unarmed. Yes! I can do this!

I went rigid all of a sudden as something dark slithered out of the corner of my eye. Looking carefully to my right, I saw nothing out of the ordinary, just a crate sitting next to the stoop of a flower shop.

Trick of the light, that's all it was. Yeah, that's all it was.

I kept walking (at a faster pace I might add). If something was there, I would have picked it up with my soul perception, right? I concentrated a little more. Yup, nothing there.

Then why did that shadow just move?

I stopped, rigid again. How could anything be there?

"Hello, anyone there?" I timidly asked. Then I just felt completely stupid for speaking to absolutely nothing. Come on! There's nothing there, right? RIGHT?

Suddenly something dark and blob shaped seemed to melt from the darkness, almost like a shadow with no owner. But the crazy thing was, I felt nothing around me! There _was_ no one there according to my soul perception.

_Stay calm, Maka, just Stay. Calm._

I broke out into a sprint down the street, yet I could still see the dark shape following me out of the corner of my eye, almost as if part of my eye was going blind. Soon, I saw another dark shape creep up in my other eye. Both followed my racing pace, but still I felt no presence, nor heard anything.

_Stupid, stupid girl! Why did I have to argue with Soul? _

I skidded to a holt and whipped around to face my pursuers; I had to know what I was dealing with. There wasn't much, let me tell you. Just a swatch of darkness heading towards me, blocking my vision and making me feel more panicky. But I stood my ground; I adopted my fighting stance and braced myself, for whatever it was I was gonna go down fighting for my life.

The velvety darkness swelled and rushed at me. I kicked and punched, touching nothing; I was defenseless.

A low rumble vibrated through the pavement followed by a screeching of tires.

"Maka!" someone called.

"Soul?" I shouted back.

In no time, a familiar scythe form was in my hands in a death grip, ready to fight off the darkness. The only sound was both of our deep breathing and the still running car as I turned slowly, probing the area with my soul perception and straining my eyes to see anything or anyone in the beams of light from the car, Soul ready to strike.

Nothing. Nothing was there. Nothing but the shadows cast by the street lamps and the grotesque moon.

"Maka! What happened?" Soul asked, his face reflecting in his blade.

"I-I don't know!"

I paused to look around some more, to see if I felt anything at all, even a bum sleeping behind a dumpster! Still, nothing.

I felt myself go cold and Soul's scythe slipped from my hands, clattering loudly to the ground. Next thing I knew, Soul's arms were around me and I could feel myself shaking. Then he was steering me towards the car, and we were speeding down the streets towards the apartment.

* * *

"—aka! . . . Maka!"

I shook my head, trying to shut out the ringing in my ears and the blinding light in my eyes. "Huh? What?"

"Oh thank god! Maka? Can you hear me?"

It was Soul, but I could hear other excited voices as well.

"Uh—yeah . . . what's going on?" I asked, squinting at the light still shining at me.

"Black*Star! Get that out of her face, would ya? Maka! Are you ok?"

The light was removed and everything was plunged into darkness. I reached out my hand towards Soul's voice and almost instantly I felt his hand grab mine, followed by his other hand gently stroking my hair.

His husky voice was near my ear, saying, "Maka, are you feeling alright?"

"Soul," said a soft female voice. Two cool, delicate hands cupped my face and I felt her sweet breath close as she said, "I think she's been in shock. She should see a doctor."

"What—what's going on? Why's it so dark?" I asked, feeling light headed all of a sudden.

"A transformer blew," the female voice said. As my eyes adjusted to the lack of light, I could see that it was Tsubaki. "The whole block is out. We came to check on you guys when Soul showed up and you were . . . catatonic."

"YEAH! Your eyes were all wide, HAHA like a deer in headlights!"

I groaned and gripped my head with this sudden rise in volume.

"Shhh! Black*Star!" Soul and Tsubaki whisper-shouted.

"Soul, _what_ is going _on_?" I demanded.

Soul sighed and I felt his hand move down the back of my head and start making small circles on my back.

"You've been unresponsive since—er . . . the attack."

". . . the attack. . . " I echoed, racking my numb brain for any kind of relevance to the statement. Let's see . . . The images flashed through my mind quickly: the library, shelves and shelves of books, the restricted section, a phone call, an argument, walking home—

"The shadows!" I screamed and jumped up.

"Soul! Catch her!" Tsubaki gasped right before I felt four arms grabbing me, stopping my fall.

"Maka, please just sit for now," Soul soothed while lowering me into what I now noticed as my kitchen chair.

"The shadows, Soul . . ."

"Is that what attacked you?" Black*Star abruptly asked, shining the light back in my face.

"Black*Star, knock it off!" Soul yelled at him. "Go get some candles or something. That flashlight isn't helping right now."

"C'mon, Black*Star," Tsubaki gently goaded him. "Maka keeps some candles in the bathroom."

"Fine."

They left the tiny kitchen with the flashlight, plunging Soul and I in darkness once more. His hand tightened over mine as he asked, "Maka, what actually did attack you?"

"I told you, the shadows. Didn't you see them?"

"No. I just pulled up and saw you standing there in a fighting stance in the middle of the street. Your wavelength was all over the place, we couldn't resonate."

"But you didn't see anything? Nothing at all?"

"No . . . what the hell happened to you? God, why didn't I just pick you up sooner?" He groaned and dropped his head in my lap.

"But they were there, I swear! These . . . shadow things, but they moved! And they were coming straight towards me. I . . . I couldn't feel anything, my soul perception wasn't working or something. . ."

"Shh, shh," Soul soothed again, sitting up and rubbing my back some more. "It's ok, I believe you."

"But Soul! I couldn't _perceive_ them! I had no idea what they were! I won't know if they come back!" My pulse was pounding in my ears and I started panting.

Soul's arms were around me now, gently rocking back and forth, humming.

"Oh, Soul," Tsubaki said as she re-entered the kitchen with a couple candles followed by Black*Star carrying a third. "I really think she should see a doctor."

"_I_ think she'll be fine," Soul said, his voice vibrating from his chest where my ear was pressed against his ribcage. "Maybe we just need to go somewhere else tonight. Somewhere where far away from here."

"Soul? Are _you_ feeling alright?" Black*Star ejaculated, almost dropping the candle. "You're sounding pretty crazy right now."

"I'm feeling _just fine_, thank you. I'm talking about outside the city. This place isn't necessarily safe right now, and I'm sure this blackout isn't helping things. I've got—I know someplace a good distance outside the city where we could go for the night."

"Are you sure?" Tsubaki asked, setting the candles on the table. "We can stay here for the night with you guys. And Kid should be told about this right away. Maybe we could all go stay at his mansion?"

"No, no, I think it'd be best to just get her out of here," Soul said in finality, still rocking me back and forth in his arms.

"Well, ok, if you think that's best," she sighed. "Come on, Black*Star, we should probably go now. Need anything else before we leave?"

"Nah, we'll be fine."

"Alright. Bye, Maka, Soul." And they left the apartment quietly.

It was silent for a little while, just the traffic outside and the flicker of candle flames. Then Soul pulled out his cell phone and started scrolling through his contacts.

"Who are you calling?" I weakly whispered.

"My brother. We're heading to his place for the night."

* * *

A/N: Dun dun dunnnnnnn! Sorry that was so short, but I feel that that was enough angst for you guys! Don't worry, it'll tone down just a little bit, but the mystery continues . . . REVIEWS WELCOME!


	6. The Brothers Evans

A/N: Ah, sorry it's been so long since my last update! I've been busy writing other scenes for this story as well as chiseling out my idea for my one piece stuff that has not been updated since April! It's quite terrible, really. Well, this chapter is another short one. I promise the next one will be packed full of all kinds of cool stuff to make up for my slack!

* * *

Chapter 6

_**The Brothers Evans**_

I have to admit, I felt extremely uncomfortable with having to call my brother, late at night, asking to 'pop in for a visit.' I waited as the other line rung a few times, keeping an eye on Maka from her bedroom doorway as she stuffed a few things in a backpack.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Wes. It's Soul."

"Soul? Uh, hey, what do you need?"

I sighed. How the hell was I supposed to explain this? "Uh, well I—we need a place to stay for the night."

" 'We'? You and—"

"Maka, my partner, my . . . meister."

There was an awkward pause. "Her dad's not after you two, is he? Soul, did you get her pregnant?"

"What? No! She's not pregnant!"

Maka looked up from her packing. I couldn't see her face that well, but I knew she had a good, cold glare aimed at me. I could just feel it.

"Look," I trying to stay focused, "we need a place to stay outside the city. Something happened and . . ." I walked away from the doorway into the living room and whispered into the mouth piece so Maka wouldn't hear me, "well Maka's spooked. She got . . . mugged."

"Mugged? Is she ok?"

"Uh, yeah, yeah. I got there just in time before any real damage could be done, but she's pretty upset. I think it'd be best if we just went somewhere else tonight."

"Well, yeah, sure, I guess. I mean, if you guys don't have any other options."

"Thanks, Wes. I really appreciate this."

"Just call when you get here."

"Will do. See ya."

"Bye."

I shoved my phone in my cargo pocket and headed back toward Maka's bedroom. She was sitting on her bed playing with the tassels of her tied fleece throw, you know, the kind you can make on your own by tying all the strips together. She went nuts making those one year for all her Christmas presents. In fact, I had one in my own room, a bright red underside with a music note pattern on top.

"Maka, you ready to go?" I asked her quietly.

Her head jerked up at my voice and she nodded her head slowly. I shouldered my own backpack and soon we were locking up the apartment and getting into the car to head off to Wes's apartment, just outside Las Vegas.

* * *

The drive went really smooth, nothing but empty back roads the whole way. Although Maka looked better, that is she had her color back and was coherent, but she tended to space out most of the trip, listening to her iPod and staring out the black-tinted windows.

I tossed my cell to her. "Text Wes, would ya? Tell him we're pulling into Blue Diamond Crossings."

"Ok." Poor girl, she still seemed a little out of it. I glanced over at her as she squinted at the harsh light on the screen. Hopefully she'll be Maka again by morning.

We pulled up to his apartment building and got out, grabbing our back packs and heading up the rod iron stairs to his front door on the second floor.

"Hey, guys," he smiled when he answered the door and let us in. He was in a red silk robe and bare feet.

The apartment was surprisingly . . . low key, for Wes that is. It was smaller than I remember his other apartments being, with a small living room decked in humble furnishings, a dining area at the far end of the room, a kitchen through a doorway off to the right, and a hallway opposite that had two closed doors facing each other and another one at the far end. It surprised me how not flashy and normal the whole set up was. If you knew my brother, you'd be surprised by this too.

"Umm, make yourselves at home . . . Maka, you can sleep in the guest room, just down the hall here." He pointed to the first door on the right in the little hallway. "And Soul can have the pullout couch. I have plenty of blankets and sheets and . . . here, maybe some wine will calm the nerves." Wes then whipped out some wine glasses from the mini bar as well as a bottle of high-end wine.

I have to admit, it was probably the best wine I've tasted in a while, an awkward air surrounded us. Well, it's not like anyone really knew what to say.

"So, Maka, are you alright? Soul said you've been in quite a state since . . . since the incident," Wes said, playing with his wine glass. Maka looked back at me quizzically, probably wondering what I had told him and how much was true. She knows damn well my family has very little understanding of what and who I really am.

"Uh, yeah, I feel a little better," she said, still glancing back at me. "This wine is really good."

"Well thank you, Maka. Yes, it's a high quality Sherry I just bought this weekend."

"Mmmm, and it's calmed my nerves greatly, thank you, Wes." She smiled sweetly and almost did a little curtsey. Leave it to Maka to win over anyone's favor, even my brother's.

"You're very welcome."

"Um, I'm going to get ready for bed, I'm really very tired. Long day you know." She politely handed back her now empty wine glass.

"Oh yes, yes, I understand. Let me know if you need anything."

"Thank you!" Maka smiled wide at Wes, and then she took a quick look back at me before heading to the guest room Wes indicated earlier.

By the time I turned around from watching her leave, Wes had already walked to the far wall and pulled back the blinds to open the sliding doors out onto the balcony. I followed him out there with my wine glass.

It was actually a nice night outside, out where the moon didn't sneer at you and the stars shone brightly on the desert scenery. Wes leaned against the small iron balustrade and lit a cigarette, his gaze toward the bright halo in the distance that must have been Vegas.

He let out a puff of smoke and handed me a cigarette. I took it without a word and let him light it. I rarely ever smoked, mostly because Maka would give me hell for it if it became a serious habit of mine, but as of right now I only did it when offered.

We both leaned on the railing, staring at the stars. "So what's up with the apartment? I half expected some big flashy condo."

Wes chuckled lightly and took another drag. "It's just temporary until I find a better place in Vegas."

"So you playing in Vegas now? Suits you."

"Yes, I'm playing in Vegas. Not everyone in Vegas just wants to gamble and get laid. Some are there for high class entertainment."

"Whatever."

"Well clearly it's more than whatever it is you do."

I sighed in frustration and flicked the ashes off the end of my cig. "You know, Wes, you are such a prick sometimes."

Wes laughed at this and ruffled my hair, "And you, Soul, are such an idiot sometimes."

I shook him off me and took another drag. "I know you don't care much what I do for a 'living' if you could call it that, but I'm happy there, it's good for me."

Wes was quiet a while, puffing on his cig and swishing his wine around in its glass. "It's good for you in some ways, yes. That Maka girl definitely has influence on you."

"Leave Maka out of this," I hissed and took a drink.

"You know, I never could quite understand why you 'paired' up with Maka. Is that what you call it? She's really nothing like you at all. You must really love her."

I choked on the last bit of wine in my glass. "What? What did you just say?"

"Well, it only makes sense that way, Soul. You must really love her to have been so loyal to her all these years. I mean, don't get me wrong, Maka's a nice, smart girl, but she's not what I expected. That's all. I guess it goes with the saying, 'opposites attract.' "

I continued coughing on the wine in the back of my throat. "So you think I _love_ her?" I wheezed.

"Good god, Soul!" Wes exclaimed, slapping me hard on the back. "It's painfully obvious." When I finally stopped choking, he flicked his cigarette from the balcony, drained his glass, and turned to leave, saying, "I'm off to bed."

I remained there on the balcony, still smoking. Was it that painfully obvious?

* * *

"S-Soul?"

I looked up from figuring out my bed to see Maka's head poking out of the hallway. "Oh, Maka," I acknowledged.

She slid around the corner and stood at the edge of the pull-out, her tie blanket wrapped around her shoulders. "I-I wanted to say I'm sorry for . . . well, for all of this." She looked down at her toes which started nervously kneading the carpet.

"Maka, it's fine," I sighed. "You don't need to apologize. I just wanted you sage and calm."

I finished laying out the sheets and blankets, then crawled into the pull-out bed. Maka sat down on the opposite edge, then spun herself around so she was facing me cross-legged, blanket wrapped around her like an Indian chieftain.

"Oh go right ahead and make yourself comfortable," I teased.

She rolled her eyes and a smile flicked across her face. "I just feel like I've caused everyone so much trouble . . . like always."

I propped myself up on my elbow. "Maka, how many times do we have to have this argument? You're _not_ troublesome to _anyone_. We're your friends; we know you'd do the same for any of us."

She was quiet for a little while, deep in thought, playing with a tassel on her blanket. Finally, she said, "I just got scared, I guess. I could always rely on my soul perception, even with soul protect. But this time, it was pretty useless."

"Well, geeze, Maka!" I laughed. "You freak out when you _can_ see someone's soul, and you freak out when you _can't_ see someone's soul . . . would you just make up your mind, you dork?" I reached over and playfully flicked her forehead.

"Ow! Soul!" she yelped, swatting at me with her blanket. After a few misses, I caught it and yanked hard. Maka comically toppled over onto the pillow next to mine.

"You jerk!" This required more swatting at me, with her hands, though, because I still had her blanket held hostage. Finally she managed to wrestle her blanket free and tucked it around herself, making it clear she wasn't going to vacate my bed anytime soon.

"Maka," I said after a while, "we're a team. Whatever we go through, we go through together. Got it? Even if we don't know what we're fighting."

She smiled, making her eyes droop even more, and smiled for the first time I've seen that day. "Got it." Then she placed her hand between our two pillows.

I reached up and placed my own hand over her small, but tough, hand, and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Oh and Soul?" she suddenly asked, squinting at me in the darkness.

"Yeah?"

"I think I found something important in the library today."

"Really? What about?"

"About the randomized waves. We need to. . ." she yawned and pulled her blanket more closely around her, "tell Shinigami-sama."

"Uh huh." I also yawned and closed my eyes. "First thing tomorrow."

Then all I heard was her steady breathing.


	7. Going Nowhere Fast

A/N: Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long since I've updated! I had a severe case of writer's block for this chapter in particular and I had to get readjusted to my new school and my crazy hard major demanding all of my time and energy! So, I don't have much confidence in the quality of this chapter which I meant to update before I left for school in the summer, but at least the plot is going somewhere. It's been so long since I've written something fictiony, so please don't be too harsh, reading/writing scientific papers all the time does things to people. Terrible things.

* * *

Chapter 7

_**Going Nowhere Fast**_

"Soul? SOUL!"

"What?What?What?" Soul yelled, scrambling from the bathroom soaking wet in nothing but a bath towel loosely around his waist, sopping wet hair flat against his face. Wes was there almost immediately after, wearing his silk red robe looking just as startled as Soul.

I looked from one to the other, suddenly very embarrassed. I had only woken up a few seconds ago to no Soul and a strange living room.

"Ummm, sorry. . . I'm fine. Just a little startled, heh heh." I smiled wide, hoping the stretch in my face would hide my blush.

Soul held up some of his dripping hair and raised an eyebrow before exchanging a quizzical look with his brother.

_Dun dun dudun, dah dah dadah dudun._

To avoid anymore embarrassment, I dove under the covers to retrieve my ringing phone, remaining under the sheets as I answered it.

"Maka? Are you feeling alright? I heard you were attacked." It was Kid.

I heard Soul go back into the bathroom and Wes slip into the kitchen.

"Yeah, I did. I'm fine, now. Soul took me to his— a hotel outside of Vegas last night. You know, to uh get a change of scenery."

"Uh . . .ok. As long as you're ok now."

"Yeah, yeah. Look, I found some information at the library yesterday, related to the insanity waves."

"Good! My father will definitely want to hear about it. He's had most the staff working on all this. And he'll want to hear about your attack. Tsubaki said something about shadows?"

"Yeah, I couldn't sense anything with my soul perception. They just came out of nowhere!"

"Interesting. . . yes, my father will definitely like to hear this. Can you guys head back to Shibusen right away?"

"Sure, we can be there in four hours max. We haven't had breakfast yet."

"Great. Text me when you get here. I'll gather the rest of the team."

"Thanks Kid. Bye!"

I dropped my phone in Soul's backpack and stood to stretch. Now, where was the kitchen? I was starving!

I found the kitchen, finally, behind a cute little swinging door. Wes looked up from his cooking on the stove as I walked in and he waved a spatula towards a chair at the little table in the center of the floor. "Hope you like scrambled eggs."

"Oh yes, I do, thank you!" I said, sitting down.

He turned around and placed a glass of orange juice in front of me. "I'm sorry my guest bed was not to your liking last night."

Heat immediately rose to my cheeks. "Ah! No, that wasn't it at all!" I waved my hands around frantically, trying to explain without explaining anything because I had no explanation even for myself! "It was a very comfortable room, but I just . . . er—Soul, well—"

Wes cut me off by waving his spatula as if swatting at a fly. "Ah, it is quite alright," he said as he shuffled the eggs onto a plate. "I promised myself I wouldn't pry into your personal lives." He gave me a delighted grin as he said this while handing me my plate.

I opened my mouth to retort, but thinking better of it, I stuffed my face with eggs. There was an awkward silence as we ate, until Wes finally broke it with a sigh.

"I've been wanting to talk to you alone about something for a while, Maka," he abruptly said. My heart quickened, thrown off guard by these sinister sounding words. "But it's always so hard when my brother guards you like a watchdog."

I admit, I had to laugh at the truth in this statement.

"I hope you don't think ill of our family," he continued. "since we seem to not be very present in his life. It's not that we don't care, we just . . . well, we have trouble understanding what Soul is. It's not . . . common in our family."

I took a sip of orange juice, planning carefully how to respond. "I guess it's not very well understood by outsiders. And Soul feels isolated because of it. I mean, there's others like him. Well, not others _like_ him like that, he's rather unique for a weapon, but . . . well . . . what I'm trying to say is he's not the only weapon who's a black sheep of his family. We've assimilated him into our own family in Death City." I smiled, feeling some heat in my face. I had no idea what I was rambling about, but was hoping this helped a little, especially knowing Soul and Wes had an oddly strained relationship.

Wes looked at me thoughtfully and then mumbled something. I couldn't quite catch it, but I think he said something like, "She's better for you than I thought." But before I could ask what he had said, Soul came into the room, fully dressed this time.

"Good morning. What did Kid have to say?" he said, sitting down next to me and eating some of my eggs.

"Hey, those aren't yours! He needs us back there as soon as we can. Shinigami-sama might know what attacked me last night."

"Soul, if you want eggs, I can make you some," Wes frowned at his younger brother. "No need to be rude."

Soul waved him off and drank some of the orange juice in front of me. "She'll live. Cool, then let's leave."

Soul graciously, and uncharacteristically I must add, helped me out of my chair, and I went into the guest room to change and repack. When I emerged, Wes and Soul seemed to be having a tense conversation quietly by the front door, but they immediately turned all smiles when I approached.

"Wanna drive?" Soul asked, tossing me the keys.

"Sure." I turned to Wes. "Thanks for having us, Wes."

"No problem, Maka. But next time, let's have better circumstances," Wes smiled at me and gave me a hug.

"Soul."

"Wes."

The two brothers awkwardly shook hands, and soon we were heading back to Shibusen. It felt weird. Just last night, I was in shock, but now that the sun was up, everything seemed so different, like nothing ever happened.

"Hey, watch the road," Soul calmly remarked. I swerved back into my lane. Wow, have to watch the day dreaming there.

"Sorry."

Cue awkward silence.

"So, what were you and your brother talking about last night?"

"Hm?" He grew tense and shifted a little lower in his seat.

"Out on the balcony. You guys talked for a while."

"Oh . . . yeah. . . Um, brother stuff."

"Oh, ok."

More awkward silence.

Usually we're not awkward with each other, but for some reason it felt so awkward all of a sudden. So I flicked on the stereo, even though me and him don't always see eye to eye on the subject of music. I found a good oldies station playing some Beetles tunes, always decent driving music. I then glanced over at Soul to see if he was so quiet out of irritation or boredom, but no, he seemed to have a completely different look on his face. Confusion? Frustration? No, it looked more like . . . thinking. Yeah, he was thinking. It's not a face I see commonly on him.

I wonder what he was so deep in thought with.

The best thing to do was to just let him be. If it was important, he'd tell me eventually, right? I mean we are partners _and_ best friends. But something inside me doubted he would tell me anytime soon.

* * *

I felt so much relief when we finally pulled off the exit ramp and into the town of Death City. Even Soul visibly relaxed at being in familiar territory. It all became muscle memory from there: park outside the school, walk through the gates, make a left down the main hall, up some stairs, through the guillotine hallway, and into the mysterious room of Shinigama-sama.

Kid met us as soon as we entered, and then went to stand behind his father who sat at a rickety, little table with a tea set.

"Ah! Maka, Soul! Welcome back! Shall we get down to business?" Shinigama-sama chirped.

"Hai, Shinigami-sama," I answered bowing slightly.

"Maka, are you familiar with the legends of Shamans?" Shinigami asked, sipping his tea.

I cleared my throat, folded my hands behind my back, and squared my shoulders towards Shinigami-sama. "Shamans are community spiritual guides who bring healing to bodies and souls, governing the two worlds: physical and spiritual. Witches are thought to be the decedents of these Shamans, since they posses similar magic to the Shamans who practiced the ancient magic."

Soul snorted next to me.

"Very nice, Maka," Shinigami replied. "I'd expect nothing less from Kami's daughter."

I smiled wide and blushed, feeling honored to be compared to my mother. Soul snorted again, so I made sure to jab him in the ribs first before asking, "But the last Shaman race died out hundreds of years ago."

"So we believe," Kid joined in, stepping toward Maka and leaning on the little table his father sat at. "However, I believe you have some valuable knowledge from your recent library stint to make more sense of this."

I creased my brow, trying to think how my knowledge made the connection.

"Ancient magic," I blurted out. "The odd insanity waves we've been encountering have been catalogued before, but only a few times over the past 100 years: when ancient magic has been used."

"Precisely." Kid smirked down at his father.

"Hmmm, I see," Shinigami-sama remarked. "So something from the ancient magic _has_ been revived."

"What does this have to do with Maka's attack?" Soul rudely interrupted.

Kid rolled his eyes at Soul and tsked. "We were getting to that, if you'd be more patient, Soul."

Soul grumbled something, crossing his arms over his chest and looked the other way. Geeze, how childish.

"Shamans, wielders of ancient magic, were in charge of shepherding the dead into the afterlife. If the souls did not cross over properly, they would remain as shades, shadows of what was once living," Shinigami calmly explained. "We believe that it was these shades that attacked you last night. You would not be able to sense any spiritual energy since they are a mere impression of a soul. However, these shades are not just wandering aimlessly, they're looking for something."

"Looking for what? Their lost souls?" I asked.

"We're not entirely sure," Kid answered, straightening his jacket. "We're not even sure why they singled you out, but it's becoming more and more evident that all of this is being caused by a rogue Shaman creating a rift between the two worlds."

"That would explain the odd insanity waves and me being attacked," I responded, straightening up in the light of revelation. "If these shades are looking for something, it's us, who have taken on the role of governing the two worlds."

"Yes, yes," Kid nodded, getting just as excited as I was.

"So what do we do now?" Soul asked, abandoning his childish pouting and facing Kid with a bored expression. "If you ask me, this is going to get worse."

"Correct, Soul," Kid replied. "We're analyzing the waves now, hoping for a pattern to point us in the direction of the rift. The sooner we close the rift or destroy whatever is creating it, the balance between the worlds will be restored and the shades will return to rest."

Soul chuckled. "It sounds so simple."

Shinigami bounced as he also laughed. "When we look back at it, it will seem so. Oh, by the way, your electricity was fixed."

"Ah! Thank you," I smiled, the thought of being able to go home making me sigh inwardly. All I wanted to do was have some tea and curl up with a good book.

"Well, I have some matters to attend to," Kid said suddenly, heading for the door. "Maka, Soul, glad you're back safe. We'll be having a meeting about this tonight at our usual location."

"I forgot it was Friday already! Yes, we'll be there." I tried to hide my disappointment of not being able to just relax all night, but I'm sure Tsubaki and Black Star want to see how we're doing, as well.

Kid left abruptly, leaving us alone with Shinigami. I was about to also excuse ourselves, but Shinigami spoke up suddenly, catching us both off guard.

"So I take it you are doing better after a night in Las Vegas, Maka?"

"How did you know—" Soul started, but was cut off.

"It's important to keep tabs on your death scythe in cases of emergencies, such as your top young meister is incapacitated, hm?"

Soul made to say something, but shut his mouth and nodded.

"You may go now, I'll keep you updated."

"Thank you, Shinigami-sama," we toned together before leaving as well.

We walked in silence down the long corridor of intimidating guillotines. I looked over at Soul, seeing his face of deep contemplation again. He suddenly turned his gaze toward me, upon noticing my staring at him. Nothing was said verbally, it was all in the eyes:

"_What?"_

"_What's wrong?"_

"_Nothing."_

"_Don't lie to me."_

Finally he faced forward again and responded out loud, "I'm hungry. Let's pick up some grub before we head home."

Right as I was about to respond, I saw a flash of red at the end of the hall. I squinted towards the odd sighting, feeling irritated all of a sudden. What was down at the end? . . . Or was it someone?

"RUN SOUL! RUN!" I yelled and shoved Soul in the opposite direction. It was like one of those dreams where everything is in slow motion and your limbs become like wet noodles. Unable to escape, I was soon collapsing into Soul's escaping back, my father wrapped securely around my ankles.

"What the—?" Soul groaned, twisting around to see what was going on.

"MAKA! MAKA MY BABY!" my father sobbed at my feet.

Soul, realizing I was pinned, carefully got out from under me and grabbed both my wrists trying to pull me out from under my father.

"Papa! Let go of me!"

"NO! I will never let my sweet, precious, lovely— ACK!"

I managed to slip one of my feet from his grasp and kicked him square in the face. "I said let me go, you buffoon!"

"NEVER!"

"AHHHH! Careful, Soul!"

"Sorry. Ah damn it! Let her go, will ya?"

The tug of war continued, with grunts, yelling, and repeated kicks to my father's face.

"Senpai? What are you doing?" Dr. Stein said standing over us curiously.

"Huh?" my father moaned, looking up toward him.

"Quick, Soul!" I whispered, and Soul yanked hard, managing to free me of my father's grasp.

"My baby had left with that weapon of hers," he wailed. "I thought she had eloped!"

"What? Papa, why would you think that?" I was now standing threateningly over him.

"Because I went down to check on you last night—_sniff_—when I heard your power was out, and you were gone! With _him_!" He pointed dramatically at Soul standing behind me.

"Yeah, because the power was out," Soul answered. "I thought it would be more comfortable for Maka, _after the trauma of her attack_, to go someplace else for the night. Geeze, old man, why would I elope with her?"

"I KNOW DAMN WELL YOU ARE NOT THAT CHASTE, BUDDY!" Papa screamed in my face pointing at Soul over my shoulder. Honestly, it's been a while since I've seen my father so upset about Soul, not since the bathtub incident.

"Senpai, you should calm down. You're jumping to conclusions." Stein said, attempting to diffuse the situation.

Suddenly I felt an arm wrap around my waist and wrench me the other way.

"Wha—?"

"AT LEAST I TAKE CARE OF HER!" Soul barked, now standing between me and my father, his arm still on my waist.

"Wha—what are you saying?" Papa sniffled. "HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME OF—OF NEGLECTING HER, YOU HOOLIGAN!"

"Tch. I wasn't the one who abandoned her for other women."

"Soul . . ." I whispered, more to myself, but he noticed it and turned towards me.

"Come on, Maka, let's go."

He pushed me at the small of my back in the opposite direction of the sobbing mess and an amused Stein. We walked in silence again, only the sound of our feet echoing on the tile and a distant sob behind us until we reached the front steps.

"You know, I just don't understand it," Soul was saying, head down and hands in his pockets. "He claims to love you so much, but he clearly doesn't know how to take care of you."

We stopped and sat down at the end of the stairs. Honestly, I was still kind of dumb founded with Soul's actions. Yeah he's bickered with my father before, but never full out got angry and yelled at him. And yes, Soul is very protective of me, but he's always avoided getting between me and my father for the simple reason that it was family stuff he shouldn't be involved in.

"Heh, we're the only two real death scythes in the whole world, and yet we're complete opposites," he said, kicking a pebble on the dusty ground.

I lightly rubbed his back reassuringly and sighed. "My father is just being . . . _my father_. Not much can be done, unfortunately." And then I added under my breath, "At least I made a better choice than my mother."

Suddenly we heard voices in the corridor. Two kids came bounding down the steps, not even noticing us sitting there for they seemed to be in a heated argument.

"You just _had_ to do that, didn't you?" fumed a young girl, sporting short, bubblegum pink hair and a light pink jumper. "Now we _both_ failed our mission! At this rate we'll never pass!" She crossed her arms across her chest.

Her partner (weapon or meister, I wasn't sure yet) gave her a bored look. He was quite the sight: black spiky hair, studded dog collar on his neck, all black and baggy clothing, and eyeliner.

"Tch, maybe if we stopped planning and calculating all the time, we'd actually capture a soul?"

"Ross!" the girl screamed, "I'm doing what they told us in class! What else do you expect me to do?"

"Stop using your head all the time and actually fight!"

Well this felt like _de ja vu_. Soul glanced over at me, smirking. Yeah, he remembered all right. How many years ago was that when we had this same argument when we first started doing missions together? It sometimes felt like yesterday.

I smirked back and stood up. He followed my lead as I deliberately walked between the fighting pair, heading to the large front gates of the school, their eyes following us upon realizing who we were.

"Soul, what's the number one rule of being partners?" I asked over my shoulder in a sweet voice.

Coming up beside me, he chuckled as he answered, "Always trust your meister."

"And always trust your weapon." I finished, looking deep into his startling red eyes.

Okay, so I probably didn't need to make it as cheesy as that, but the statement truly fit for the crazy couple of days we've had. I felt a strange and deeper connection to Soul all of a sudden, as if we were resonating perfectly, nothing like the awkward silence during our drive earlier.

* * *

A/N: Well, there you have it! Please review! Oh, and I'll be updating the next chapter, hopefully soon because I got a sudden creativity burst (during midterms, how ironic) and have been punching out the next couple chapters already. \^o^/


	8. Used Tissues Stick to My Shoes

Chapter 8

_**Used Tissues Stick to My Shoes**_

_**Previously in Chapter 4 . . .**_

"_Look, Soul, you're my man, but I need to work this out for myself."_

"_But Black*Star, we're starting to get worried," I said, once I reached him._

_His hand reached out all of a sudden, grabbed my shirt collar, and slammed me into the nearest wall, the last thing I expected._

"_I told you," he said in a low, threatening tone complimented by an equally dark look, "it's none of your business. Do you think I care about what people think? I know it takes me longer to think through stuff, but I'm going to work this out alone. Just back the fuck off, Soul."_

_He let me go, then walked off in the opposite direction of our apartments._

_Well that went well. _

* * *

I pinched my eyes together so hard colors burst in the back of my eyeballs. I couldn't believe this was happening.

"I _HAVE BEEN_ PAYING ATTENTION TO YOU!"

"HALF-ASSED CONVERSATIONS DON'T COUNT!"

The minute we got to the club, Tsubaki and Black*Star broke out into the biggest fight I've ever seen. But seriously, did they really need to do this now?

Maka sighed as she slumped against my shoulder. "I'm getting a headache," she said, wiping some of the salt off her margarita glass with her finger and licking it. She had tried refereeing when the fight started, but being an invisible referee is pointless so she decided to just sit this one out on the couch with me.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT'S NOT A CONVERSATION?"

"_BLACK*STAR_! WE'RE PARTNERS! I THINK WE'RE BEYOND SMALL TALK!"

"Have you heard back from Kid yet?" I said low near Maka's ear as the screaming match continued.

"No. He said he'd be here."

"Well he's not here."

"Obviously."

"I JUST WANT TO TALK ABOUT WHAT'S GOING ON! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST TALK TO ME LIKE A CIVILIZED PERSON?"

"SO I'M NOT CIVILIZED NOW, HUH?"

"THAT'S NOT WHAT I SAID!"

"How long has this been going on?" I asked Maka.

She sighed, "About 15 minutes now."

"Damn."

"My headache's getting worse."

"Here, take a swig." I handed her my glass of Jack on the rocks (no Coke this time, this was not a night for diluted drinks), which she took and swallowed a mouthful.

Suddenly, the yelling came to a halt. We both looked up from our slouched positions on the couch to see what kind of progress was being made. Black*Star was slowly shrinking back from his fighting stance; Tsubaki had her face buried in her fists and sobs racked her body. Finally, she gasped in a breath and put her fists down by her sides.

"Look at us now, Black*Star. Is this . . . is _this_ what you wanted? Us _screaming_ at each other in front of our best friends? How _selfish_ you look right now."

She took in a long, shuddering breath, wrinkling her face even more to hold back the sobbing cry that was surfacing. Even I could see this was going to end badly and I'm dumb about emotional things. Black*Star opened his mouth to reply, glanced in our direction, closed his mouth, and remained silent. He didn't even look mad or indignant anymore. His pride was completely stripped from him as he stared helplessly at Tsubaki. Eventually, she wobbily walked towards the door, attempting to make a dignified exit, and left, the pounding bass reminding us that there was a world out there very much alive and happy and not tragically upset.

Maka didn't even spare me a glance before she got up and followed Tsubaki out the door. Great. Now it was just me and Black*Star.

Black*Star was frozen there, staring dumbly at the spot Tsubaki had just vacated. I remained on the couch, staring up at him, not knowing exactly what to do or say. Maka and me had just been thrown into something we were not supposed to be involved in. If only Black*Star had gotten his shit together when I confronted him about it the other day, none of this probably would have happened. What the _hell_ was he trying to figure out that would cause him to be so emotionally cold to her? Man, this was fucked up.

I cleared my throat after a minute or so, reminding him of my presence. "So, have you been able to work this out for yourself yet?"

"_Fuck, _Soul. I guess I'm just gonna have to do it," he said. Then he turned around and began marching out of the room.

"Wait, do what?" I asked, suddenly concerned with what he meant by this. I got up and followed him.

It didn't take long to find the girl's bathroom where we could hear Tsubaki's sobs coming out along with Maka's muffled voice, even though the bass was still pounding up through the floor. Black*Star simply stood there in front of the frosted glass door, as if he were debating whether to go in there or not.

He squared his shoulders, licked his lips, took a deep breath, and finally said through the door, "Tsubaki, will you marry me?"

The sobs immediately halted.

I heard Maka utter a quiet, "Wha—"

I'm pretty sure my brain exploded.

"You heard me, Tsubaki," Black*Star spoke through the door again, his confidence (or plain stupidity, I'm not sure which) showing through. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a little velvet case, calmly tossing it between his two hands. "Will you marry me?"

Suddenly the bathroom door whipped open and a chaotic looking Tsubaki burst through. Her long black hair was bursting from its once neat bun, black streaks of wet make-up streamed down her cheeks, and her eyes were red and swollen, a look of utter bewilderment and confusion on her face.

Black*Star was so startled by this that he fumbled with the box and almost dropped it on the ground. "Oh, uhh," he said while blushing a little and getting down on one knee. He smiled stupidly as he held out the open case for her, revealing a rather large and sparkly diamond.

"This is why . . ." Tsubaki started, but then screamed out, "YES! YES I WILL MARRY YOU!" She fell to her knees and gripped Black*Star around his neck, sobbing on his shoulder, his stupid grin still in place.

Maka appeared in the doorway of the bathroom, staring open mouthed at the scene before her, then she looked over at me. I gave her an equally shocked look back.

All that kept going through my mind was: What. The. _FUCK?_

* * *

"I thought you were going to dump me or something," Tsubaki laughed nervously as she sipped some of the wine her and Black*Star were sharing. "Or worse, that you were cheating on me."

"Seriously? I'm sorry, sweets, I never meant to do that." Black*Star reassured, then kissed her again.

They were back in their own little world, happy as ever. Maka and I stared stoically at them, exhausted, irritated, and many other emotions I don't have the capacity to describe right now.

"Can we fucking go home now, Soul," Maka muttered to me, putting her glass back on the table. It was a sure sign Maka was very tired and very irritated when she used such language.

"Trust me, babe, I've _been_ wanting to go home."

Before I could block, she reached over and pinched my arm, _hard_.

"OW! What the hell was that for?"

"_Don't_ call me 'babe,' Soul. I consider it derogatory and you _know it._"

"Ouch, bitch. There, like that better?"

"Soul, I _swear to God_, I will—"

VBBBBBBBBT! VBBBBBBBBT!

She reached down her haltered, navy dress top and pulled out her vibrating cell phone. Suddenly she held up a hand for silence from the other side of the room and stood up, alert.

"We'll be there." She ended before flipping her phone shut. "That was Kid. We've got trouble in the mountains. A young weapon/meister team went there for a disturbance call and encountered something big. Kid thinks it's the Shaman and is on his way there now."

"They got a jet ready for us?" Black*Star asked, also standing up.

"Yeah, we just need to get back to Shibusen, pronto." Maka declared, gathering her purse and heading for the door.

Black*Star fished some bills out of his pants pocket and flung them on the table before ushering Tsubaki and myself out of the Red Room.

* * *

"Heads up," Maka called from the back seat before a pair of navy, suede heels came flying up front.

"Trying to drive here," I calmly retorted, checking the side mirror for Black*Star's pick-up truck to make sure it was still following me. I wasn't allowed to look in the rear-view mirror obviusly since Maka was changing into her battle uniform back there.

"Here I come," she prefaced before climbing over the central console and into the front passenger seat, now wearing black shorts and a black tank top with a patch on the left chest that said Shibusen Special Ops. Flipping down the visor mirror, she added, "Been a while since I've battled with _this_ much eye make-up ha ha."

I snorted a laugh. "It's an intimidation factor. I'm sure our enemies have a raccoon weakness."

"I had a dark blue dress, okay? Not much in eye color choice." She flipped the visor up. "Where's my boots?"

"Uh, probably still back there. You only tossed up your heels."

Maka twisted in her seat to dig around the floor behind her, eventually pulling up her combat boots.

Within minutes we were at Shibusen, dashing out of our cars and into a sleek, black private jet. Stein was waiting for us in the jet, ready to brief us on the situation once we were sitting down. Marie, his wife, accompanied him as his weapon.

"A weapon/meister team headed out to the Northern part of the Rocky Mountains a little over an hour ago on a disturbance call," Stein began, standing at the front of the seating area as soon as we took flight.

"What kind of disturbance call?" Maka asked, adjusting her black gloves.

"Shibusen intel picked up some strange disturbances in the normal insanity waves, almost like little black holes in the field."

"Who were the students?" Tsubaki then asked with hand raised. "I'm curious if they're one of mine." Tsubaki had been doing some extra lessons with the Shibusen students the past few months.

"They were weapon's meister Cindy and demon mace Ross. Now, Death the Kid has already arrived on scene and confirmed that the kids are still alive but are being attacked by what appear to be the Shades Maka encountered the other night." Stein turned the screw in his head a few times before continuing. "Marie and myself shall focus on getting the children to safety while the special ops teams will focus on dealing with the Shaman directly. The main mission is to rescue the children. If there are no more questions, we will arrive in 30 minutes."

Stein sat down next to Marie and Black*Star and I stood up to start changing into our battle uniforms. I was in the process of pulling off my undershirt when Maka looked up at me from her seat under the overhead compartment and quietly said, "Soul?"

"Yeah?" I tossed her my shirt and grabbed a black Special Ops tank.

"Didn't you recognize one of those kid's names?"

I thought about it while messing with my belt buckle. "Nope. Pants please." I held my hand out towards Maka waiting for her to give me my cargo pants, but nothing came. I leaned down to find her staring out the small window biting her lip anxiously. "What's wrong?" I grabbed my pants myself. My undershirt was balled up in her fists.

"Ross. The girl outside Shibusen earlier today. She called him Ross."

"Are you talking about those two kids we ran into after escaping from your father?"

"Yeah. Soul, I think those are the kids we're going to rescue."

I buckled up my belt and started pulling on a black canvas jacket. Then I crouched down in the aisle to be on eye level with her.

"Maka."

She turned to look at me, still biting her lip.

"We'll get them out of there. I know we will."

She nodded and turned her gaze back to the window, tossing the shirt in my lap.

* * *

The wind was whipping so hard we had to shield our eyes as soon as we stepped off the jet. Ashen clouds billowed from behind the tree line facing us. Stein was saying something, but between the wind and the jet, it was impossible to hear. Maka was nodding, like she heard what he said. Soon Maka was grabbing my arm and pulling me through the forest.

"Woah," Patty said next to me once we were crouched in the underbrush. Woah was right. A seven foot . . . man I guess you could say was at the center of the open, rocky area, with arms outstretched toward the sky. Two beams of light were coming from his eyes, and a high spiritual energy was radiating from his multi-colored priestly robes. In one of his hands he held a gigantic staff with a bright red jewel on the top, currently flaming.

Maka suddenly drew in a breath. "Soul, it's them," she whispered in my ear, nudging my arm in the direction of the two kids. Cindy, the pink bubble gum haired girl we saw at Shibusen earlier, was laying spread eagle on the ground surrounded by black shadowy masses. Ross, the spikey haired goth kid, was trying with all his power to get at his meister, but instead was bloodied and bruised from repeatedly hitting the barrier surrounding her.

All the meisters looked at each other briefly before Stein gave the signal. Here we go.

My adrenaline was coursing through my veins as we broke through the tree line and ran full force towards the Shaman.

"Soul!"

Time to roll.

I leapt into the air, releasing the energy flowing from within my soul to change into my weapon form. Maka's hands reached up to grab my staff as it flipped through the air, her own soul's meister-energy surging with mine. Our wavelengths hummed together for a moment as we prepared for battle, unlocking gate after gate of stored up energy and rhythm.

Her energy spiked suddenly before colliding my blade into the Shaman's staff. A white-hot surge of insanity jolted me, throwing my meister back. She instantly sprang back up on her feet and waited as Black*Star emerged from the shadows and attempted an attack.

"You alright, Soul?" Maka asked, her voice echoing around in my consciousness.

"Yeah, I've taken worse," I responded, rubbing the age-old scar across my chest.

"That was some strong magic," she said, focusing on the Shaman's staff and tightening her grip on me.

"Yeah, but he's only human right? I mean, he can still die."

Black*Star and Kid were taking turns attacking and being thrown back by the Shaman's strong magic. I felt a surge of excitement ripple through Maka before she charged around the other side of Black*Star, seizing the opportunity to land a blow from behind.

My meister might be too much of a bookworm and might seem boring or pissy on certain days of the week, but no matter what her battle instincts are unmatched. Of all the other meisters that have wanted to make me their weapon, they've never been able to measure up to Maka's.

She let out a wail as she swung me full force at the back of the Shaman's head. Time slowed suddenly, right when I felt my blade arcing down and heard Maka yelling, the Shaman's front, magic staff and all, came through his back and blocked my blow with a white-hot magic burst. For a split second, our enemy appeared to have three heads and three staffs as he battled us each.

Maka was unfazed. She flipped midair to land on her feet, then bolted forward to continue attacking from different angles. But it was the same every time; we were countered by the staff which was also blocking Kid's bullets and Black*Star's shadow attack all at the same time.

I kept all my senses trained on the Shaman, though, trying to search for openings, weaknesses, anything that would give us the advantage.

Maka's energy calmed slightly, and I could feel it softly whispering inside me, beckoning for more of my energy.

Our resonance level spiked.

"Witch Hunter!" Maka bellowed before slamming my modified blade into the magic staff. We managed to hold him for a few seconds longer than the usual, but we were still thrown back.

"Everyone! Resonnate!" Maka hollered at the other two meisters. "Soul, can you hold this for a while?"

"Yeah, go for it Maka!"

We paused for the others to resonate higher together, then leapt into the air swinging me high. Kid was counting down for firing his cannons and Black*Star was charging midair.

Just before impact, I glanced over at the trapped kids where Stein and Marie were finally pulling them to safety. Suddenly, the Shaman made a sighing noise and disappeared into the ground in a cloud of sulphurous smoke.

"Shit!" I heard Maka yell before Kid's cannon fire collided with us, knocking us both into Black*Star whom we skidded along with on the rocky ground for 50 feet or so. I quickly sealed up my weapon energy and transformed back into my human self to find that I was face down in the rocks next to Black*Star who must've caught Maka midair, shielding her from most of the landing impact.

"Oh _fuck_. Maka! Maka! You alright?" Black*Star yelled suddenly. I twisted around into a sitting position to see him cradling an unconscious Maka sporting a huge burn across her torso: the spot where Kid's cannon fire hit. While in most circumstances seeing her shirtless should have been completely hot and nosebleed inducing, the firey-red burn crawling across her exposed stomach as the fabric of her tank top was being eaten away induced more of a panic response from me.

"C'mon, Maka!" Black*Star whispered while grabbing her jaw and giving her head a little shake. Behind me I heard several footsteps and Kid's voice shouting something, but I couldn't hear what. Tsubaki transformed back into her human self on the other side of Black*Star, but her eyes rolled around, unable to focus on anything.

Much to our relief, Maka started hissing in pain and swatting Black*Star's hands away from her face. She cracked an eye open and found me with her gaze. Hissing in another breath she quietly proclaimed, "_Goddammit_ that hurt." She squeezed her eyes shut again and turned her head, burying her face in Black*Star's bicep.

"HEY YOU GUYS!" Kid yelled while panting up behind us with the Thompson sisters. "I keep telling you, _we need to get out of here_. The Shaman summoned a storm of some sort!"

By the time I turned around from the bent over Kid to help Black*Star with Maka, Black*Star had already taken off with her bridal style. I quickly glanced over at Tsubaki who still seemed to be dazed, so I grabbed her by the wrist and took off after Kid who was already following Black*Star; the Thompson sisters were bringing up the rear running behind Tsubaki and me. Behind us I heard the rumble of thunder and then saw a flash of light; the wind was gusting heavily, too, as we sprinted over the rocky terrain towards the jet beyond the tree line. I remember looking back once to see a black boiling mass of cloud and lightning charging over the landscape.

* * *

It was slightly chaotic when I ran onto the jet with Tsubaki still in tow. Maka was lying on a table crushing Black*Star's arm with her grip as Stein squeezed this white foam all over Maka's wound. Kid hovered over Maka on the other side of Black*Star, muttering apologies. Marie, on the other hand, was focusing on the pink girl laying on the table next to Maka, hooking her up to machines and checking her vitals. The pink girl's spikey weapon stared helplessly at his unconscious meister with a haunted look in his eyes.

I didn't even notice when the Thompson sisters came on the jet after us and Liz made some comment like, "Let's just find a seat and stay out of this mess." And I was unaware of Tsubaki slipping out of my hold on her wrist to go over to Black*Star's side. Not until I was actually walking between the tables and having to tear my eyes from the comatose young girl to Maka did I realize I had moved from my spot by the door and we were already in flight.

I took Maka's hand off Black*Star's arm and let her crush my own hand instead as I placed my other hand on her sweaty forehead.

Maka looked up at me and forced a smile. "Hey."

I smiled back, more out of a sense of relief, and replied, "Hey."

"It's not so bad anymore. The foam is cooling it down."

"Good. You alright?"

"Yeah, I think I'm alright."

"Good, you're alright."

"Let that sit there for a while before we bandage it," Stein said, wiping his hands with a paper towel.

We both nodded and watched him go to the other table where the young meister lay.

"I hope she's alright," Maka whispered. "If only we'd been there sooner."

I gave her hand a comfort squeeze knowing that she was thinking of her own encounter with the shades.

Tsubaki headed over to the other table as well, to stand next to the spikey guy and hold the girl's hand. Black*Star followed to comfort Tsubaki, but not before tripping over Kid who was sitting propped against the wall between the tables, head between his knees. Maka and I watched as Stein was thoroughly inspecting Pinky's health status.

"How is she?" Maka managed to croak out in Stein's direction.

Stein stopped mid screw-turn. "She appears to be in a coma. It's as if her spiritual energy has been completely drained from her body. I'll know more once we get her to Shibusen."

The Ross guy's face was suddenly very pale and still held that haunted look of a failed weapon. The cabin was completely silent, the atmosphere extremely tense. And it didn't let up the whole way home.

* * *

Maka and I let out an audible sigh as we opened the front door to our apartment and dragged ourselves inside. I put the keys on the kitchen table and stared into space for a moment at my bedroom door, debating on whether I should shower first or just collapse immediately into bed. Maka made her way to the bathroom, but only closed the door part way. Curious, I walked over to the partially open door and leaned against the door frame watching as Maka slipped my jacket off to look at her bandages completely covering her stomach below her bra-line. She turned slowly, bending and arching to look at it from different angles. Suddenly I wasn't sure I was supposed to be watching.

"You look so uncool," I said, to let her know I was there.

"Heh, whatever. I guess we're even now." She looked over her shoulder at me and smirked at my confused expression. "We both have battle scars on our fronts now."

"That's so not cool, Maka," I sighed, holding out my hand for my jacket which she obligingly gave back. "Do you need anything? I think I'm just going to head to bed."

"Nah, I'm fine." She was leaning forward on the sink now examining her face. "Goodnight."

I eyed her suspiciously. She was acting way too comfortable and calm after all the shit we just went through today, but respectful of her space, I simply replied, "Night," before heading into my room.

* * *

2 a.m.

This was ridiculous. I was completely exhausted but my brain would NOT fall asleep. I rolled to the edge of the bed and fished out the hidden pack of Marlboro's. Maybe a long walk and a fresh smoke will clear my head. I grabbed my Special Ops jacket and my keys off the kitchen table and headed down the block.

The air was nippy, characteristic of an early summer night. I was now possibly regretting only wearing my basketball shorts I slept in, but, whatever, I was out here now. The fresh air and change of scenery allowed my mind to think in more of a linear fashion. I believe my brain was still experiencing a system meltdown after Black*Star's proposal. Seriously, what the fuck was he thinking? Marriage? Black*Star? The moon grimaced cruelly from above as I walked along the dark street.

I shook my head and took a long drag on my cigarette before rounding a corner. I guess it was no different than when he told me a few years ago that he was planning on asking Tsubaki to be his girlfriend. Yeah, that shook me up a little bit, but, hey, they lasted this long and now were getting married. When you look at it that way, I guess it does sound like the normal progression of things.

"_It's not like I'm with anyone else more than her."_

Black*Star had told me this one day when he'd asked her out. I couldn't disagree with him. Now that I think about it, I don't think I've been on a real date that wasn't with Maka. We went together to all the school dances and parties. Wait, one time I did get stuck on some weird date thing with this random girl from our class, but I made sure to drag Black*Star and Tsubaki with me. It didn't end well. That's all I have to say about that.

I crossed a street and ended up at the park. I sat on a bench illuminated by the lone glow of a street lamp and lit another cigarette. Leaning back and sprawling out, I looked up at the crisp night sky. Sure I've met plenty of nice, good-looking girls. As much as I flirt and allow myself to look, they never appealed to me as anything too serious. I always find myself comparing them to Maka. They're never smart enough, or tactical on the battle field, or tolerant of silence, or tolerant of Black*Star; they do stupid things to their hair; they overemphasize certain body parts; they're nothing like Maka.

Oh shit.

I love her, don't I?

"_You must really love her." _

No, Wes. It was just friendship. It was always just friendship. We only went to the dances together because neither of us felt secure enough to go with someone else. And guys avoid Maka now not because she's ugly or anything, quite the contrary with her long slender legs and soft blonde hair. They rarely approach her because I'm always with her. . . I'm always with her.

No. I'm just protecting her from all those creeps out there. Plus, it's not like they'd be able to put up with her like I do. See? I'm more like a brother to her. She needed a male in her life that would actually stick by her, unlike her father. That's all there is to it.

So, would I be ok if she met someone else?

. . . I ran the scenarios through my mind: her special smiles aimed at some good-looking, smart guy; said smart guy holding her hand, letting her cry on his shoulder; _his_ arm around her; her bickering with him over the littlest things. . .

Yeah, not a problem at all.

. . .

Am I _shitting_ myself?

I crushed the cigarette under my shoe and stood up, a hot burning sensation in the pit of my stomach. Every scenario I thought of, I pictured _myself_ as the guy with her. What was my problem? I'll tell you:

I love her. _That's_ my problem.

How uncool.

* * *

**A/N: **So there you have it. I hope you liked this chapter, because I'm pretty proud of it and liked it, especially with all the time it took me to write this. I apologize that it took me so long to update, believe it or not I have a life that is overly demanding and it took me a while to get in the groove of writing after school. So, please REVIEW because I want to know what you thought about this chapter! I'll say it again, REVIEW!


	9. Sugar, We're Goin Down

**A/N: **Yes, I am AAAALLLIIIIVE! Don't worry, I'm well aware how overdue this update is. I love this story and have a strong desire to finish it, but school is what hinders me. I'm about to graduate and I'm pre-med. Do the math: school sux. A shout out to my girl **endsoftime** who proofread and edited. Your input helped a lot!

* * *

Chapter 9

_**Sugar, We're Goin Down**_

The decision to move in together was a mutual decision more than anything. It's not like I already had an apartment and let Soul come live with me or vice versa. No, we both decided upon it, went apartment shopping, and moved in together by 13 years of age.

My father, of course, wasn't too keen on the arrangement. That's why we didn't tell him until the lease was already signed. See, he didn't have much control over the situation, or any situation for that matter. Mama had just left a few weeks prior, leaving me alone with the letch, and Soul was on the verge of murdering his roommate at the Shibusen dormitories. He'd complain non stop about how Chuck was so messy, full of himself, and needed a reality check.

The last straw was when I went missing the day Mama moved out. Well, of course I knew where I was, but to Soul I went missing. I was actually hiding in the girl's bathroom on the fifth floor by the library, crying. Soul had violated 7 school rules and injured two people searching for me. Finally, the dope texted me and I told him where I was. The next thing I saw were his shoes on the other side of the stall and I heard him muttering through the door if I was alright. We ended up hanging out in that bathroom all day, sitting on the sinks with two bottles of Coke, talking about everything.

That was how we reached our mutual decision to move in together. It wasn't easy those first few weeks, especially since Papa would randomly drop by to make sure Soul "kept it in his pants," and I was still emotionally coping with Mama's absence. But it worked itself out. I think if we hadn't moved in together, we might not still be partners. Soul was _seriously_ considering murdering his roommate.

* * *

It became a habit to rise early, even when I had been laid off duty due to injury. 'Over-achiever' I believe was the term Soul used. I rolled my eyes at his words floating in my head, simultaneously stretching carefully, mindful of the bandages tugging at my skin around my torso. An assortment of cloth bandages, burn ointment, and tape cluttered my nightstand. I grabbed the items and threw back the covers, proceeding to scoot out of bed and over to the mirror leaning against my closet door.

It was a surprisingly involved process to change the bandages. The first day Soul helped me, but we ended up bickering about it so I decided to try it on my own. It kind of turned into a morning reflection routine. I could face myself in the mirror, address the things I had to do today, and introspect on my life. It was soothing to say the least, especially with the events of late.

I think we were all shaken up from fighting the shaman. Kid had been particularly moody, giving me little to no information every time I called for an update.

"_I'm working directly with intel, Maka," he'd say with an irritated sigh. "This is on a completely different scale than what we've dealt with before."_

Black*Star and Tsubaki were too distracted by their recent engagement to focus on the shaman much. Black*Star did call to make sure I was healing alright and Tsubaki has visited the girl still comatose in the hospital. Other than that, they've been making arrangements, bargaining with parents, etc.

Soul has been the most uncooperative so far. He hasn't spoken much about the Shaman or my wound or the little girl dying in the hospital, but he's been prone to arguing with me about anything lately. For example, two days ago I caught the whiff of cigarette smoke on his hoodie. He knows how disgusted I am with smoking, especially bringing that smell into the house. He'd never smoked before! When I confronted him about it, he deflected saying that it wasn't any of my business. "None of my business?" I remember screeching at him. Then we had a good ol' fight about it. He claimed it was an occasiona thing, not an addiction. Yeah, that's what everyone says. All in all, a bowl of ice cream ended up on the kitchen floor, I cried angry tears, and he left for the night. That was our biggest fight in quite a while actually. Since, he's just been real short with me and hasn't been around much.

I stared at myself for a couple more moments before standing up to find some clothes. The bandages were too bulky for my usual attire at this time of year, so I've been borrowing Soul's shirts.

I dug around in the dryer in the kitchen and yanked up a yellow shirt of Soul's that had big black letters across it saying, "SOUL MATE." Sure it was considerably large on me, but I rolled up the sleeves and bunched it up around my waist. This shirt matched perfectly with a pair of dark skinny jeans I had and completed the look by doing my hair in messy pig tails.

Satisfied with myself, I went back to the kitchen to get some breakfast. Deciding on cereal, I grabbed a box out of the cupboard and a bowl and spoon. Just as I was getting the milk out of the fridge, Soul emerged from his bedroom and sat his half-asleep self down at the table. So I grabbed another bowl and spoon for him.

"Hey, can I use the car today?" I asked nonchalantly as I handed him his things.

He looked longingly at his bowl, probably wishing it would fill itself, and then responded, "Uh, what? Sure, whatever."

"Ok. I'll take good care of it, I promise."

Soul seemed to check out of reality for the remainder of breakfast. Actually, I was surprised to even see him up this early on a day off. He was having trouble sleeping the past few nights. I'd wake up randomly in the middle of the night and hear the TV going in the living room, then he'd sleep most of the day, sometimes late into the afternoon. I'd already asked over dinner last night if something was bothering him, but since he's been so testy lately he snapped at me that everything was fine and it was just "a touch of insomnia." Whatever.

I placed my bowl and spoon in the sink and walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth. Soul picked up his bowl and followed me, leaning against the doorjamb munching away on his Coco Puffs.

"I'm running out of clothes," he said.

"Well then, I suggest you do the laundry more often," I retorted, focusing on my reflection in the mirror as I wetted my toothbrush. I wasn't going to waste a good glare at "His Royal Rudeness" right now.

"I have a pile of shirts in my closet you can have. I outgrew them a while ago."

"Fine, I'll wear those from now on. But I'm going to be late if I have to change right now."

"Aren't you just going to the hospital?" His spoon clanged against the bowl as he secured it, ready to start drinking the left over milk. The past couple days I had gone to visit Cindy and Ross in the hospital.

"No." I spat out the foam and started rinsing. "I'm meeting my father for an early lunch. It's our monthly date thing."

"Oh. You don't think he'll be suspicious about you wearing . . ." Soul motioned to my upper body with his empty bowl.

"Suspicious about what?" Why was Soul being so weird this morning? "Soul! My shirts won't fit around these bandages."

"I know, I know. But that man gets his undies in a bunch if he so much as whiffs my cologne on you."

"He'll just have to deal with it then," I huffed, pushing past him to grab my shoes by the front door. "Sheesh, Soul. It sounds to me like _you_ just don't want me wearing this shirt!" I bent over to tie my shoes. The last thing I wanted was to argue with him this morning. Over a shirt, too.

"No, that's not what I . . . nevermind. I just didn't want your father thinking the worst of you, alright?" He rubbed his face with both hands, then scratched his chest sleepily. "I'm sorry."

I looked up at him, trying to figure out what was going on inside of his head to make him act so strangely. "Whatever. Look, I'll be home in a couple hours." And with that I snatched the car keys off the kitchen counter and headed out the door. Getting in the car, I cranked whatever CD Soul had loaded and sped out of the back parking lot with the sunroof open, letting the slightly angsty music drown the frustrated feelings threatening to interfere with my list of other emotional hurdles to deal with today.

* * *

I turned down some side streets and into the back parking lot of a strip of little shops and restaurants. After killing the engine, I did a few breathing exercises to calm myself, not wanting this morning's episode with Soul to spill over into the pending disaster of my father-daughter date. Ok, so I was over reacting. I think I was already pissed off to begin with and it _felt _like he was attacking me this morning. Crap, and I had yelled at him. But I had to swallow these feelings of regret surfacing: I had a father-daughter date to get over with. I locked up the car and walked into the quaint little Italian bistro.

My father already had a table by the window, a red and white checkered table cloth spread out with a bread basket and menus. Three menus to be exact. How strange.

"Maka! Oh my precious, darling, beautiful baby girl!" he gushed, standing up and kissing the top of my head.

"Hi, Papa," I stated and sat down. He sat across from me and smiled wide, barely containing his over-excitement. That is, until his eyes saw my shirt.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he ground out, pointing accusingly at my chest, eye atwitchin'.

"Papa!" I slapped at his pointing finger. "Don't make a scene! It's just a shirt, it doesn't _mean_ anything."

"Oh really? I'm sure that's what _he_ told you before he FORCED HIMSELF UPON YOU!" My father sprang up, shaking fists at the ceiling, steam rushing from his nose.

"Papa, sit down, people are staring," I hissed, grabbing my father's shoulder and shoving him back down into the booth. "Soul did not force himself on me. Soul Mate is the name of a band and I'm wearing this shirt because the bandages prevent me from wearing my own tighter shirts."

Papa slowly sat down and scowled. "Fine, fine. If that's you're story, I believe you."

"You ready to order?" a waitress suddenly asked, making Papa jerk up from his scowling.

"Uh, no, sorry! Not yet, we're still waiting on someone. She should be here any minute!"

"Alright, I'll pop over when she gets here." The waitress left us alone.

"Papa," I said, a weird, sick feeling in my stomach, "who are we waiting for?"

"Ah! Ha ha haha! It's a surprise!"

With the look on his face and the nervousness he displayed, I almost wondered for just a second if . . . if my mother was meeting us too. I hadn't seen her in I don't know how long! Could it be he convinced her to come out and see me? Oh crap, and I was wearing Soul's shirt! If I had known, I would have worn something more decent—

"Why hello, Spirit!"

"Hello, darling!" I heard him give her a peck on the cheek, but I dared not look up. "Hon, I'd like you to meet my daughter."

"Hi, I'm Keiko! You must be Maka, Spirit's told me so much about you."

Finally I remembered my manners and mechanically looked up at the woman extending her hand towards me. Definitely not my mother. The woman had a heart shaped face, framed by wavy auburn locks. Her frame was slender, but just curvy enough to be pleasing to the eye. And her eyes were a peculiar shade of green. Just who was this woman?

"H-hi! Yes, I'm Maka, Spirit's told me nothing about you." I smiled warmly, hoping it'd stretch my face enough to hide the disappointment.

After shaking hands she sat down next to my father and he put his arm around her. "Sweetie, Keiko is my girlfriend. We've been dating for a couple months now—"

A couple months? How had I missed that? Oh yeah, I rarely ever talked to my father. But the way he carried himself with her. He was still goofy, but with a note of seriousness. She giggled at all the right times, he calmly went on about how they met at Shibusen library, and so on and so forth. I wasn't really paying attention. I seemed to go into auto pilot by that point.

"That's nice. I'm sorry I've been too busy to finally meet you." I quickly scanned the menu with my finger, trying to focus on something other than my whirling thoughts.

"Oh that's quite alright!" the woman beamed, also picking up a menu. "Spirit has told me all about your important missions. What an honorable position on the Special Ops team, too! Spirit's so proud."

I looked up and smiled at her, then at my Papa. "Yeah, he tells me that every day."

The waitress came and we ordered food. I even forgot what I had ordered I was so disoriented. What the _hell_ was my father doing _dating_? _Dating_! Who in the world would date him with his reputation? She seemed such a nice, sensible lady. Do I warn her? Has she already been warned?

"So, you must have a pretty powerful weapon by your side. You are a meister, right?"

I looked up from playing with the water ring my glass had left on the table. "Yes, I am. He's a Death Scythe named Soul Eater."

"Like Spirit-chan! Oh how wonderful! I bet your father inspired you."

"Heh, yeah, something like that." I returned to playing with my water ring. Papa laughed nervously across from me, remembering, I'm sure, all my threats to him about my plans to overthrow him.

"Excuse me, Keiko," my father said suddenly, making to scoot out of the booth. "I need to run to the little boys' room." Keiko slid out to allow him to leave. As the two of them stood there quite close to each other, my father gave her a brief peck on the temple before scampering off to the bathroom. Slightly a-blush, she sat back down across from me and smiled.

"So, I'm curious about your weapon since Spirit barely ever mentions him," she said, clasping her hands on the table as I nibbled on some of the complimentary bread. "From what I've heard he's not only good looking, but a powerful weapon." Keiko wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

I almost choked, honestly, since the last thing I wanted to do was talk about that annoying, whiny, sloppy—"Yes, he's quite powerful. My father just likes to deny his existence most times, hence not mentioning more about him to you." Keiko giggled. "He's pretty much my best friend. He's got his moments of complete asshole-ness, but he's a pretty good guy, even rivaling my father when it comes to overprotectiveness of me. But then again, he's my weapon. We're extremely reliant on each other to succeed and defeat whatever enemy we're facing. This is what it means to be a meister/weapon team."

"I see," she said, smiling warmly at me, as if thinking of something nostalgic. "You guys are quite loyal to each other, am I right?" Then she added, blushing at the table, "Soul sounds a lot like Spirit-chan. I bet that's why he dislikes him so much."

I almost choked for the second time that day. Soul like _my_ father? Was this woman on crack? Soul was everything my father was not. Especially the loyal part. Papa didn't know loyal if it had kicked him in the groin.

"Umm, Keiko?"

"Yes, Maka?" Her eyes were so warm, so inviting to listen to whatever I was going to say. Maybe this is why my father picked her. She was strong within but quite nurturing.

"Has anyone ever told you . . . I mean," I sighed, trying to find the right words to say so as not o offend or scare her. "Have you been warned about my father's . . . wandering eyes?" I grimaced, more for her sake. I was quite open about the fact that my father was an unrepentant adulterer.

Keiko's eyes widened slightly, then she smiled warmly at me. "Maka, I've worked in that library for a while, I hear all kinds of gossip from students and faculty alike. How did you think I knew Soul was good-looking? I'm no cougar, the girls constantly chatter about him." I definitely felt my cheeks heat up from this statement. "Likewise, I know full well why your mother divorced him."

"Oh, alright," I replied, slowly. "Just making sure, um, you were aware, you know."

"Hello, ladies! Hope you had some good girl talk whilst I was gone!" I started at my father's exclamation. Papa had Keiko scoot out again to sit back down.

The waitress was right behind him, handing out our food. We did not approach the subject of Soul again the rest of the meal, mostly keeping it to small talk such as my love of books and which ones were my favorite, Keiko's similar love of books since she worked at Shibusen's library, and of course my father's PTSD as a result of Stein. Stein somehow always creeped up into my father's conversations. I was beginning to worry if he needed to go back to therapy.

I had to keep a keen focus on my plate or on the window to prevent my puking all over the table as Papa and Keiko did cutsy-couply things like holding hands and touching noses, and the giggling. Oh the giggling!

Then my mind kept wandering to what she had said about Soul. Yes, he was good looking, but the girls _still_ talked about him? I thought when he had made it clear that he was going to remain _my_ partner they'd backed off. I guess I wasn't as observant as I should have been around him. I wasn't possessive of him, if that's what you're thinking! No, I was simply looking out for him. He has never shown those girls much interest anyways. No clue why, but he never did really.

* * *

"Sure, Tsubaki, a movie night sounds fun!" I exclaimed to her on the phone as I drove back to the apartment.

"Perfect! I could use a break from all this wedding stuff."

"I know what you mean. Not about the wedding though, but needing a break. I just came back from my monthly father-daughter date."

"Oh! That's right! How did that go?"

"It . . . went ok. Um, I'm driving, so I should let you go before I crash Soul's car, hahaha."

"Yes! Oh my, I'm sorry, I didn't know you were driving. I'll text you about the movie then!"

I clamped my phone shut and tossed it on the seat next to me, exhaling long and hard. Anything to distract me from how I was feeling at the moment would be great. Well, the apartment sure needs cleaning. With me out of commission, Soul's let the apartment get a little cluttery. Perfect, I can clean the hell out of our house.

* * *

I heard the door slam as I was wiping down the stove. It was Soul.

"Where've you been?" It wasn't demanding or accusing. Just a simple question.

"Out for a jog," he said, breathless. He reached behind him to grab his shirt and in one fluid motion, yanked it over his head. I have to admit, seeing Soul's slight muscular build all sweaty like that made my heart pound just a little harder. Yes I'm his partner and best friend, but that doesn't mean I'm not attracted to him. "I'm gonna shower quick. Is it cleaning day already?"

"No," I had to stop my eyes from attempting to trail down his exposed torso. I mean, come on, it's not like I've never seen him shirtless before! Gosh, what Keiko said was getting to me, that had to be it.

He disappeared into his room. "You even cleaned my room?" he asked, surprised but not upset or anything.

I walked over to his doorway and leaned against the wall. "Yeah, sorry, I got carried away again."

He frowned as he sniffed a shirt from his laundry basket. "Father-daughter date go that bad?"

I opened my mouth then closed it again a couple times, not sure how to explain it to him. He patiently waited as he sifted through his laundry basket. Finally I said, "It was unexpected."

"Ah," he said before selecting a shirt and some jeans. "I'll be quick then." He walked past me and into the bathroom to shower. I sighed and grabbed his laundry basket off his bed and put it back in his closet. Then I continued my work in the kitchen. That's another thing I respected about him: he doesn't force things out of me, he lets me tell him in my own time.

Only ten minutes later, I heard the water shut off and Soul emerged from the bathroom toweling his hair dry, whistling a tune. He seemed to be acting less weird than he did this morning. Maybe he just needed to get active a little and the jog helped? Who knows, he was probably just PMSing. Goodness, guys are so difficult to live with sometimes! I scrubbed a little harder at the pudding stain on the floor.

"Hey Maka?" he called.

"Yeah?" I answered, dropping my rag on the kitchen table and going into his room.

"Where'd you put all those records I had on my bed?" Soul was on his hands and knees, looking under his bed.

"Oh, I put them on the desk you never use."

Soul looked back at me, then up at his desk. "Ah, thanks." Soul got up and headed to his record player.

I was just about to turn and leave when Soul stealthily grabbed my hand and pulled me into a dancing position. He grinned at my surprise. I had more things to clean, what was he doing now? The music started; a waltz.

Oh.

"I'm no good at waltzing, remember?" I said irritably, eyes instantly to our feet. Crap, how was I supposed to begin again? If this was an attempt to make up for being such a pissy roommate, it wasn't working.

"Don't worry, just follow my lead," he coolly whispered, pressing lightly on the small of my back.

Surprising myself, I didn't protest with the excuse of more cleaning to do. For some reason, I felt I needed this. There hadn't been much to clean in the apartment, but I needed to focus my energy on something other than the strange pangs of hurt and frustration with the new development in my father's love life.

We stepped backwards and forwards to each beat, a comfortable silence between us until I finally spoke up.

"I'm sorry I got mad at you this morning. I was . . . over reacting."

"It's alright," he said, barely above a whisper.

Another long pause during which I stumbled slightly and almost stepped on his barefoot.

"Maka, is something bothering you?"

"Hm?" I said, looking up into his crimson orbs boring into me. Shouldn't I be the one asking _him_ that?

"You seem oddly quiet. Not to mention, you're cleaning like a banshee."

Backwards. Forwards. Side-step. "Oh." Should I tell him? Why wouldn't I tell him? Oh yeah, because he's been rather testy these past couple days. "It's probably just PMS."

Soul stopped our dancing. "Maka, you usually inflict severe pain on me when you're PMSing."

"Well, it's not like you've been Mr. Nice lately either!" I felt a little pressure on my back, signaling me to start up again. "Is something bothering _you?_"

He looked a little surprised for a minute, almost like he either didn't expect my question or hoped I wasn't going to ask. Glide. Spin. Twist. "Nope."

"Lie."

"No. You asked if something was bothering me, and some_thing_ isn't bothering me." He smirked mid twirl at his cleverness. "Don't worry about it, I'd tell you if I felt it necessary. But, Maka, your wavelength is all over the place. You weren't like this this morning. You were crabby but not . . . not confusing like this."

Darn. He caught me. All my emotions were suddenly whooshing back on me. Maybe I _was_ PMSing? I let out a shuddering breath, ceasing movement. "My father's dating someone."

Soul's eyes got wide. "What the hell?"

"I know, I know." My thumb pressed against his shoulder, spurring us back in motion. Forward. Sideways. Back. "She's really nice and she's beautiful, but the whole time I couldn't stop thinking of my mother. He was being so sweet to this _other_ woman but cheated several times on my mother. She even called him _loyal_ for Kami's sake!" I felt my eyes start to sting.

Soul stopped our dancing again. His hands left their positions and cupped my face, forcing me to look into his scarlet eyes. "There's no way she can replace your mother. We both know that." Then he reached down and grabbed both my hands in his, our foreheads leaning against each other. "And there's no way your father can make up for his lack of loyalty to you or your mother, but he does love you. He's just really bad at showing it."

I nodded and smiled. "You're such a dork." That earned a little chuckle from him. You know, Soul can be such a jerk sometimes (like this morning, hrm!) but at times like these, he knows exactly how to handle me. Those heavy feelings seemed to fall away almost instantly. Soul was here, I had nothing to worry about.

He suddenly smiled wide at me. I smiled back, feeling so light and warm inside. Both of us slowly closed our eyes and just stood there, resonating, breathing to the music, my arms loosely around his neck, his around my waist.

"Thank you, Soul," I whispered, leaning closer so our noses were touching.

"Anytime, princess," he whispered back, our hot breath mingling in the small space between our lips.

The cloud of emotions prevented me from thinking straight about what we were doing, almost like instinct just started taking over. Soon I felt his head turn ever so slightly, coming closer; my lips parted, waiting for his.

Suddenly there was some shouting followed by three loud pounds on our front door. I pulled back a bit, as if reality was pulling me out of this little dream. "That would be Black*Star," I sighed.

"He knows where the key is," Soul replied, not letting me go.

"He'll break down the door before he even bothers to look for it," I whispered. Soul kept his eyes closed as I gently slid out of his hold and softly glided to the front door. My cheeks were burning when I opened it to let them in, thinking about it. We were really going to kiss just now. Holy shit.

"Took you long enough!" Black*Star loudly complained, walking in past me and strutting towards the kitchen table.

"Sorry, _your highness_," I scoffed, and scowled at him. "And to what do we owe the _pleasure_ of your visit?"

Soul emerged from his bedroom, saw me scowling at Black*Star, and decided to also scowl at Black*Star. "Dude, no need to be rude."

Black*Star burst out into a loud guffaw. "Sorry, guys! I'm just trying to be all serious! I'm a messenger!"

Soul and I exchanged confused glances. Black*Star continued, "Kid sent me. Looks like another student got targeted and is now in a coma. We gotta head to the hospital. Why do you guys look so red?"

"Why didn't Kid just call us?" I asked, feeling a new batch of emotions. I needed to sit down or punch someone, one of the two. Was I still red?

"Hmmm, something about the cell phones. He didn't want to use them. Now come on, the truck's waiting outside!" Black*Star fist pumped then headed for the front door again.

I only had a vague idea of what was going on, but decided to hold my questions for Kid himself. Soul and I followed him out.

Tsubaki was waiting in the passenger seat of Black*Star's beefy Ford F-150. Soul and I climbed into the back seat. I'm not sure if I was conscious of it, but I was keeping a general distance from Soul and avoiding his eyes altogether. Black*Star jumped in the driver's seat and headed for the hospital. Usually I hate driving with Black*Star because he's so bad at it, but I had not the strength to backseat drive today. Instead, I leaned my head against the cool window, hoping it would bring the fever out of my face.

Soul had never before pulled a move on me like that. Yeah, we've held hands and snuggled and pecked on the cheek, but never a full on, sober lip smack! Ok, there was that one time, I was drunk and made out with him, but I was drunk! Oh God I feel mortified. What if we _had_ kissed? Was that Soul's intention all along? Why would he want to kiss me? And then it dawned on me. Was our friendship suddenly more than just very close? Uh oh, things can get very complicated if that happens.

_BANG! _My head smacked against the window.

"OW! BLACK*STAR! Slow down at the speed bumps!"

* * *

In an odd, somber silence we all stood round the hospital bed where poor Cindy lay, still hooked up to machines. I glanced over at Soul who was standing next to me. His gaze, however, was not directed toward the little girl sprawled on the bed but on her partner staring hollowly at her. Ross. Poor boy. I bit my lip, holding back the lump surfacing in my throat remembering that helpless feeling when there's nothing you can do for the person you pledged to protect.

Everyone's heads snapped up as soon as the door opened and Kid stepped in.

"Team," he simply said, motioning for us to leave. Almost like we rehearsed it, we filed out quietly and slowly into the hall. For a brief moment, I had reached forward and linked pinkies with Soul. Yeah, I know it might sound stupid, but it felt necessary at the time. Just enough physical intimacy to feel less alone; less afraid.

We all huddled in the hall, same air of solemnity as in the room. I heard Kid suck in a deep breath before proceeding in a low voice so only we could hear him, "Another victim was brought in last night. Another young female student from the same class as Cindy. This time they were with a team, but the Shades only targeted the one young lady. I just got back from the debriefing of the other team members, and they gave us more of an insight to what the Shaman is after."

We exchanged some anxious glances with each other before Kid continued.

"The last team to encounter the Shaman informed me that it appeared that the Shaman was using one of Cindy's abilities against them. Cindy is a unique meister who has the ability of soul protect, like a witch. The young team did not even sense the Shaman coming before he attacked with his shadow puppets."

Tsubaki gasped softly. I, too, was taken aback. So the Shaman can use others' abilities. "So is he targeting those with special souls?" I asked.

Kid nodded at me. "Yes. Thus, you were also targeted for your soul, Maka. I doubt it was your anti-demon wavelength, probably your Grigori soul."

"Are those souls . . . is the Shaman _taking_ their souls?" Tsubaki stuttered out.

Kid sighed. "It seems likely. We're not entirely sure because the person is still alive, just comatose. Intel suggests they must remain alive for the ability to still be usable. In essence, the Shaman is borrowing their souls' abilities."

"Then what's special about the other girl's soul to make it a target?" Soul asked, his bangs hiding his darkening face.

"Lilly had a very rare weapon form. She was an elemental weapon, controlling water. Elemental weapons are some of the most powerful weapon forms, as you know. With the Shaman in control of her abilities, bad things could happen with this earth's water supplies."

Everyone was silent, digesting the grim information. "So how do we stop him?" Black*Star yelled, causing most of us to start.

Kid stared him down. "With soul protect, even Maka wouldn't be able to sense him. We have to wait until he appears again. He has a pattern of lying low for a while after an absorption. Be prepared this week, we might have to go into action at anytime. No cell phones off at night, understood?"

"Hai!" we all responded. I guess the meeting was adjourned for now. I felt too wired up to go home now, I wonder if the others wanted to go out for dinner? Wait a minute, where was Soul?

"Soul?"

* * *

His back was to me, overlooking the rest of Shibusen, a trail of smoke drifting from the object pinched between his finger and thumb. That bastard, smoking again. He knows I hate it.

"You're going to get cancer," I stated. He took another drawl and chuckled, but didn't respond otherwise. So I marched right up to him and snatched it from his hand.

"Che," he said, probably figuring I was going to smash it under my shoe. _I_ thought I was going to as well until I lifted the cigarette to my own lips and sucked in a lung full of death. Turning away from Soul to hide my sputtering (it'd been a while since I've actually had a cigarette), I took another inhale, and let it seep out my nostrils slowly. Finally, I turned haughtily and gave it back to him with as much smugness as I could muster, not bothering to look him in the eye although I pictured a mix between amusement and shock on his features. I remained there in front of him staring down at our shoes. I heard him inhaling on the cigarette again.

"I'm going to find out." He knew I meant more than just about his secret cigarette stash.

Soul dropped the cigarette to the ground before grinding it into the dirt. I peeked up at his eyes as he grinned slyly. "So what do we do now?" I knew he meant more than just about the Shaman situation.

"Kick the bastard's ass."

His grin grew wider. "I love it when you talk dirty like that." He leaned down and lightly kissed my forehead before turning around and heading back into the building.

You know what? Things had been hopelessly complicated between us for a long time by now I have realized, because at that moment, as I watched him saunter into the hospital, I was aware of how attracted to him I really was. But let the complications come; he was _my_ Soul after all.


End file.
